BY WILL BRENDZA

Texas is getting its very own long-distance cross-state thru trail thanks to one ambitious outdoorsman with a vision. The Cross Texas Trail (xTx) would extend 1,500 miles from Orange to El Paso, winding along some of the Lone Star State’s most scenic landscapes, passing towns and many historical sites, gaining roughly 56,000 feet in elevation along the way.

The nonprofit organization behind the xTx describes it on its website as “the future Pacific Crest Trail of Texas.”

Veteran trail hiker, bike-riding adventurer, and Texas native Charlie Gandy is leading the charge in establishing the xTx. The former Mesquite and East Dallas resident first had the idea when he was hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) in June 2024.

He saw the power that cross-state trails had to connect people, uplift communities, and transform the individuals on them. He was a few days into his hike when it hit him.

“I could see a route across [Texas],” said Gandy. “I just wasn’t sure how I was going to get it done at that point.”

While people could technically hike the route now, Gandy hopes to have it officially established in the near future. At that point, it will be open season for thru-hikers, bikers, and horse riders who want to traverse the state of Texas by trail.

Currently, he’s asking for help from hikers, bikers, and equestrians who can help “ground proof” sections of the trail. Then, in spring 2026, Gandy intends to thru-hike the entire trail himself, and he’s inviting anyone to join him on the adventure.

xTx: The Pacific Crest Trail of Texas

Gandy graduated from the University of Texas and worked under the governor before starting several businesses of his own. He’s a serial entrepreneur, but he also has a history in the nonprofit world. He founded BikeTexas.org, the first statewide bike advocacy group in Texas. Now, he’s also founded xTexas.org.

In his spare time, he’s also an avid and fairly accomplished hiker. “I’ve hiked all of the fourteeners in Colorado and almost all of them in California and elsewhere,” he told me.

He revealed his plans for the xTx at the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference in September. He called the initiative kind of a wild ride, but said the response from both the hiking community and most of the locals he’s heard from has been positive.

“This is a big, hairy goal that I get to undertake,” Gandy said. “It kind of has a life of its own.”

The trail will be a mix of singletrack and about 40% gravel roads. It will showcase the diverse environments, scenic landscapes, and cultural variety that span the largest state in the contiguous U.S.

Gandy also hopes the xTx will draw visitors who will bring business to the communities it passes through. “It’s a new opportunity to have a different type of customer in town,” he said.

Gandy’s nonprofit, xTexas, is working to get the route officially established and recognized by the state. In true Texas style, he’s already got an “xTx” iron he intends to brand fence posts with as trail markers.

Crossing Texas: no easy endeavor

Texas is not only the largest state in the continental U.S., but it also has more privately owned land than any other state. That has made designing the route somewhat challenging for Gandy. He knows that it will change as he starts having more conversations with counties, towns, and private landowners.

Still, his initial route finding was done simply using Ride with GPS, mapping different scenarios with his targets in mind. So far, he said, he’s ground-proofed much of the eastern portion of the trail. But he still needs help. That’s why he’s asking for assistance.

“Right now, we’re still looking for ground-proofers with expert skills in hiking, mountain biking, and horse riding,” Gandy wrote on the website. “This means that you are the type that can fully support your own water, food, and shelter needs without any resources for help.”

At present, Gandy said, several sections of the trail lack water, food, and shelter for as much as 80 miles. That’s a big part of what he needs help with right now. The xTx website profiles several ground-proofers who are already helping him define the trail. If you want to become one of them, you can reach out to Gandy through the xTx website.

“In some cases, it’s very attractive for hiking; in some cases, it’s not. In some cases, it’s really attractive to ride a bike, and in other cases, it’s impossible,” he said. Those are the on-the-ground kinks he’s working out now.

xTx Thru-Hike: the route

Miles 0-200

The xTx eastern trailhead is in Orange, La., on the border. From Orange, it heads to Pine Forest and trends north. It crosses the Neches River, passes through Wildwood and Goodrich, and arrives at Lake Livingston.

From there, it continues due east to Waverly and Sam Houston National Forest, and on to Navasota, which is almost 200 miles on the nose from Orange.

Those first 200 miles meander along bayous. Many of the towns you pass through are small, with Cajun influence. From there, it enters the rolling hills north of Houston.

Miles 200-500

From the 200-mile mark, the trail starts passing through historic towns where travelers can stay in bed and breakfasts or local hotels. The trail heads southwest, traversing La Grange and then passing between Houston and Austin. At mile 367, you cross Interstate 35, and the trail starts to become less flat.

The xTx thru-hike then approached Canyon Lake and Baldy Mountain near Canyon City. Then, the trail once again turns due east toward Comfort (the town). Hikers will then cross the Guadalupe River and summit Bandera Pass before connecting with the Medina River, which they’ll parallel until mile 490, at Tuff, Texas.

Miles 500-1,200

Again, the xTx turns south, now toward Utopia, and then Davenport Hill, turning north at mile 552. The trail winds up to Barksdale, over to Devil’s River State Natural Area, and on to Sanderson.

After that, the xTx enters one of Texas’s most visited natural areas, Big Bend National Park. The trail takes hikers through the park and exits from the northwest corner toward Marfa.

From there, the trail approaches its largest ascent to the highest point along its length. Passing through 6,205 feet near the McDonald Observatory. It continues northward toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park. If you want to summit Texas’s highest point, Guadalupe Mountain, this is your chance.

The Home Stretch

The last 200 miles dip up into New Mexico, crossing the border twice as hikers make their way along the home stretch to the trail’s western terminus in El Paso, Texas.

That’s the general route, according to Gandy. It’s still evolving as he and others ground-proof the trail. But he’s getting closer. By spring 2026, he intends to traverse the entire Lone Star State on the xTx. If he can successfully do it, he’ll be the first thru-hiker to complete the route.

If you want to see the most up-to-date route, check out the xTx webpage showing Gandy’s map.

Getting xTx Thru-Hike across the finish line

Gandy hoped to have the entire route defined and the trail officially established by spring 2026, when he embarks on the first attempted thru-hike of the xTx. Indeed, this undertaking is “big and hairy,” as Gandy said.

But the payoff could be a grand Texas legacy, something that locals will use to get outdoors and exercise and that will draw different kinds of tourism to some of Texas’s smaller, off-the-beaten-path communities.

He’s contributed $10,000 of his own money and raised $10,000 more, but he says he still needs around $30,000 to complete this project within his timeframe. On the xTexas website, you can learn more about his progress and plan, and donate to the nonprofit.

“It’s fun what’s unfolding here,” he said. “I’m glad that the community is responding the way they are.”

xTx Thru-Hike: regional breakdowns & highlights

Eastern Piney Woods to Hill Country

Ecosystems

If you start east and hike west, your journey will begin in the Eastern Texas Piney Woods ecosystem. This region is akin to what you might expect to find in Louisiana, parts of Oklahoma, or Arkansas.

Big Thicket National Preserve, north of Beaumont, Texas, is a great place to see this kind of natural environment. There is an access point just 25 miles into the xTx thru-hike.

The rolling hills of this area are dominated by pine, oak, sweetgum, and black tupelo trees. Hikers will undoubtedly see squirrels, opossums, rabbits, and even snakes.

Towns

Many of the towns hikers pass through along this section of the hike will have a Cajun influence because of its proximity to Louisiana. You’ll find plenty of BBQ joints and Blue Bell ice cream shops along the way.

Wildwood is a very nice (largely gated) community. It offers many recreation opportunities, as it’s close to Lake Kimball and Big Thicket National Preserve. The lake in town has a manmade beach and beach volleyball courts.

Coldspring is another notable town you’ll pass through, right after Lake Livingston. Like many in Texas, it’s a small community and serves as the seat of San Jacinto County. Not far away, you can access Sam Houston National Forest, where you can find campsites and dispersed camping.

Navasota is the last town of note within the first 200 miles. It’s considered the “Blues Capital of Texas” and is a great place to catch some live music. This is where Texas declared its independence from Mexico, and it is full of historic buildings and churches.

Central Hill Country to Big Bend

Ecosystems

Texas Hill Country sits atop what’s geologically known as the “Edwards Plateau.” This limestone formation is distinguished by its deep canyons, rocky hills, caves, and freshwater springs.

Hikers will pass through grasslands, juniper and oak woodlands, and savannas dominated by oak and mesquite. Autumn sage, yucca plants, and succulents are endemic to the area and grow plentifully. Keep your eyes open for Texas tortoises, which are also known to roam the area.

Towns

La Grange is the first big town of note that hikers will pass through on this section. You may recognize the town’s name from the classic ZZ Top song. Or, maybe you’ve seen the play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which was based on the town’s historic Chicken Ranch Brothel. Chicken Ranch closed in 1973, but you can still visit the landmark just a few miles outside of town.

New Braunfels is next up, a German-influenced town of around 110,000 people. It celebrates its German-founded heritage with events like Wurstfest and monuments like Gruene Hall. There’s even a waterpark named Schlitterbahn Waterpark. It’s located on the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers, making it a popular place for outdoor recreation activities like paddleboarding, tubing, and kayaking.

Comfort is another German-influenced town along this section of the xTx route. People know it for antique shopping and wine tasting (a potentially dangerous combination). Much of Comfort’s downtown is designated as a National Historic District, and many of the buildings are over 100 years old.

One of the last towns of note hikers will enter along this section is Sanderson, Texas — also known as “the Cactus Capitol of the World.” It is primarily a ranching and railroad community at the confluence of three separate ecological zones. Its natural ecology lends itself to hundreds of different types of cacti (hence the town’s nickname).

Western Desert Section & Big Bend

Ecosystems

Once you pass beyond Sanderson, you’re squarely in the Chihuahuan Desert, where mountain and desert ecosystems converge. Hikers will find grasslands, shrublands, and forests. The temperatures swing wildly, from scorching hot days to chilly nights. You need to be prepared for heat and plan ahead to avoid getting into dangerous situations.

The Chisos Mountains near Big Bend National Park abut the Chihuahuan Desert and offer a slightly cooler and wetter climate and environment. There are many hiking trails scattered throughout the Chisos; however, most require a car to access. If you’re thru-hiking the xTx, they would make for a long detour.

Finally, the Rio Grande River ecosystem is lush with vegetation and attracts many animals (and insects) to its shores. This is one of the most important water sources in western Texas, and the xTx follows it for roughly 30 miles through Big Bend National Park. Along this section, there are numerous access points where hikers can dip into the river.

Towns

Marfa is the first town you’ll pass through after you exit Big Bend National Park and start working north toward El Paso. It’s worth a stop if you like quirky desert communities. Not only is the town known for its minimalist art scene, but it’s perhaps most famous for the “Marfa Lights” or “Marfa Ghost Lights.” These unexplained illuminations have been witnessed since the 1800s and still lack explanation today.

If you’re into military history, Fort Davis isn’t far from Marfa, and the xTx passes right through it. It’s home to one of the oldest and best preserved Frontier Military Posts in the American West. The University of Texas McDonald Observatory is also there, which hosts regular events and special viewing nights for the public.

The final Texas town on the east-to-west xTx route is El Paso, right on the border with Mexico. Known as the “Boot Capital of the World,” this would be a great place to treat yourself to some new kicks, in celebration of your 1,500-mile accomplishment. El Paso is also known for its Tex-Mex cuisine, which is regarded as some of the best in the west.

What to bring on the xTx Thru-Hike

Packing for a 1,500-mile hike across numerous ecosystems, desert climates, and everything from cities to national parks is no small task. It will require planning, list-making, unpacking, repacking, trial and error, and in the end, there’s a big chance you’ll end up having left something you wish you brought. Such is the plight of adventure.

Hazards on xTx Thru-Hike

Every thru-hike brings its own unique challenges. But we aren’t going to sugarcoat this for you: The xTx is a perilous hike. Not just because of its length and the long, remote stretches, but because of the harsh climates, the creatures, and the proximity to the Mexican border at certain points.

Despite the fact that you might be sleeping in hotels or B&Bs many nights, this is not an undertaking for the faint of heart. What follows is a list of hazards that hikers should be aware of before setting out on the trail.

Heat & hydration

The number one biggest challenge to thru-hiking the xTx is going to be heat. Texas is a hot place, and there are stretches of this trail that lead through some very desolate and historically very hot regions. Some of these stretches might be safer to hike at night or in the early morning.

If you’re hiking during the day, make sure you’re prepared with enough water and have refill points mapped out. Wear sun protection, and stay alert for the symptoms of heat exhaustion, like headaches, dizziness, cool, clammy skin, muscle cramps, and rapid heart rate.

Gandy is explicit on the xTx website about when people should (and should not) attempt this trail.

“The route is not designed for thru-hiking, biking, or horse riding in late spring, or summer ever. Full Stop,” he writes on the website. “It’s designed for late fall, winter, and early spring. We’re not sure how to make this any clearer.”

Snakes & insects

In the eastern portion of the xTx, you should keep your eye out for poisonous cottonmouth snakes. As you get deeper into the desert environment, you’ll have to keep an eye (and ear) out for rattlesnakes.

Both of these snakes can be fatal if you are bitten, and hospitals are few and far between for long stretches of the xTx trail.

Insects can pose just as big a hazard. Mosquitos in eastern Texas can be brutal. Scorpions and tarantulas are not uncommon in the desert. There are widow spiders, Chinese red-headed centipedes, wasps, kissing bugs, brown recluse spiders, red ants, and many other poisonous insects that call Texas home.

Shake your boots out before putting them on in the morning. Be wary when overturning stones or sticks. Generally, just stay alert and aware.

People

Of course, people are always the most dangerous hazard when you’re hiking long distances. Much of this hike follows roads and highways — be wary of strangers offering rides, and keep your guard up if you stop in small towns or at gas stops. Many of the towns the xTx passes through are friendly, welcoming, and polite — but outliers exist, as well.

The xTx also gets pretty close to the Mexico border at points during the second half of the hike. You could encounter people coming across, or be mistaken for one. Again, just travel with your guard up and stay alert.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY WILL BRENDZA

When normal singletrack trails and downhill mountain bike parks don’t do it for you anymore, where do you go to get your adrenaline fix?

If you ask GoPro athlete and enduro and freeride mountain bike rider Kilian Bron, he’d tell you to head east to the Himalaya. Bron recently went there in search of some of the steepest lines and most remote mountain bike rides in the world. And he found them.

In this clip from GoPro’s series Draw Your Lines, Bron climbs a 4,600m peak. He carries his bike all the way to the top, traversing a ridgeline as he approaches his descent location. Then, he drops into a chute, fires out onto an open slope covered in scree, and rips his way downhill, with the Annapurna massif in the background. It’s a legendary line — the kind that mountain bikers dream of.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY WILL BRENDZA

The two 911 calls were made separately, but both reported the same thing: Two bodies were at a remote campsite in Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park. Around 4 p.m. on June 8, two National Park Service (NPS) rangers responded to the calls, hiking 18 kilometers overnight to the remote location. When they found the scene, an investigation was opened, the FBI got involved, and despite identifying the bodies, no one yet knows their names.

Now, Keweenaw County Medical Examiner, Dr. Michael McAllister, has revealed to Michigan news outlet MLive that murder-suicide is the suspected cause of death. According to McAllister, the two victims appear to have been father and son, although it’s still unclear who died first.

Aircraft had to be used to extract them due to the remoteness of the location at South Lake Desor Campground. Both the NPS Investigative Services Branch (NPS-ISB) and the FBI are investigating the case.

An email shared with our sister site, GearJunkie, by the Keweenaw County Clerk shows that the Board of Commissioners is denying Freedom of Information Act requests for death records related to this case. The Keweenaw County Attorney said that “the County does not have any autopsy or testing results or other medical records.”

McAllister said he completed the certificates of death for the two victims on June 24. The cause and manner of death are pending.

NPS-ISB is also withholding the individuals’ names, as it said, releasing them could “hamper the investigation.”

While information remains thin, details are slowly emerging, painting a dark picture of what may have happened that night at Isle Royale’s South Lake Desor Campground.

Screams in the night

Late on June 8, a Reddit user named redblackrider made a post on the Isle Royale subreddit titled, “Screams at Desor South on 6/6/25.”

“Was anyone else in the campground last night and heard all the commotion?” the user wrote. “It was kind of frightening, and we’re wondering if anyone knows what was going on.”

They described hearing the latrine door slam several times before yelling started.

“It was repetitive, filled with threats of self-harm and violence toward others. And it was relentless,” they wrote.

The Reddit user said they became so uncomfortable and felt so unsafe that they packed up and left at around 11 pm, nighthiking to another campsite.

“We ran so many scenarios through our heads in the moment and regularly questioned if we were doing the right thing as we hiked. None of us are qualified to handle what was happening.”

The user found a high point with cell service and called 911 to report what they’d heard. Later, they said they were contacted and interviewed by the FBI.

Desor South Campground: Isle Royale NP

Isle Royale is one of Michigan’s least-visited national parks. It is on Lake Superior and only accessible by ferry, seaplane, or private boat. Annually, it sees about 20,000 to 29,000 visitors. The Greenstone Ridge Trail is a popular hike on Isle Royale. It traverses much of the island and passes right through South Lake Desor Campground.

According to the supervising park ranger at Isle Royale, Elizabeth Valencia, the South Lake Desor Campground is very remote and challenging to reach. There are no roads accessing the area, and much of the terrain is variable, overgrown, and often wet.

“It’s a challenging environment,” said Valencia. “The trails are rugged and rocky. People get overextended, they hike too far. In the summer, a lot of times, people will get heat exhaustion, or don’t get enough water, things like that.”

Still, despite the natural hazards, Valencia said, deaths in the area are rare. There have been several in the last few years, but they were all accidental or natural causes.

“This is not a common occurrence for us,” she said of the suspected murder-suicide.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY MARY ANDINO

With an elevation of over 6,000m and treacherous routes to the summit, Mt. Artesonraju in the Peruvian Andes rarely sees ascents. The tragic deaths this month of an experienced climbing party show why it remains such a dangerous mountain.

Several weeks after their initial disappearance, three climbers — including National Geographic photographer Edson Vandeira — were found dead on the Peruvian mountain this week.

Vandeira, 36, a Brazilian native and resident of Peru, set out for the summit on May 29 with Efraín Pretel Alonzo, 34, and Jesus Manuel Picon Huerta, 31, two Peruvian mountaineers. When they did not return on June 1 as planned, volunteers began a rescue operation using drones and helicopters.

After 10 days with no results, the search ended, and on June 22, the Association of Mountain Guides of Peru confirmed that they had found the climbers’ bodies using drone reconnaissance.

The exact timeline of events is not clear, but large falling blocks of ice likely caused the accident.

The mountain has been the site of other accidents, including in 2006, when three American climbers died after falling into a crevasse. In 2018, three mountaineers perished from an avalanche. Conditions can change quickly on the mountain, and the risk of avalanches is high.

A skilled mountaineer

With 17 years of alpine experience under his belt, Vandeira was a skilled mountaineer, The Minnesota Star-Tribune reported. In fact, Vandeira was attempting to summit Mt. Artesonraju as part of his training to become a certified mountain guide.

National Geographic has featured Vandeira’s photography, including this feature story on jaguars in Brazil.

His work was also featured in the History Channel’s Andes Extremo, a series following ascents of six of the Andes’ highest peaks. Vandeira’s photography ranged from capturing the peaks of Everest to showcasing voluntary veterinarians attempting to help wildlife in Brazil during wildfires. Other major projects included documenting Brazil’s science program in Antarctica. Vandeira lived in Minnesota for several years, and there was an outpouring of support and grief in the local climbing community following the tragic news.

“Beyond being an extraordinarily skilled mountaineer and climber, he is an incredible human: Kind, passionate, and inspiring,” Sayyed Saif Alnabi wrote in the Minnesota Climbers Facebook group.

Vandeira’s former wife, Natalia Mossman Koch, launched a GoFundMe to pay for recovery efforts and help Vandeira’s family travel to Peru. As of yesterday afternoon, the fundraiser had only reached about $3,500 of its $7,000 goal.

Check out Vandeira’s photography portfolio on his website. Vandeira’s family and the Association of Mountain Guides of Peru did not respond to requests for comment.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY WILL BRENDZA

Finding a cache of gold out in the woods is every hiker’s dream — and sometimes, it comes true. In February 2025, two tourists were hiking on a hill in the Czech Republic when they stumbled upon a life-changing find. They noticed a tin can and a metal case tucked within an old manmade wall.

Upon pulling them out and opening them, they discovered seven kilos of gold objects: 598 coins, 16 cigarette cases, 10 bracelets, a comb, a chain, a key, and a wire mesh bag.

The haul allegedly totaled over $340,000.

It’s a wild story, but not one that’s unheard of. In 2024 (also in the Czech Republic), a woman went for a casual hike and found 2,150 silver coins from the 12th century. In 2021, a hiker in Nivorno, Italy, found 175 gold coins dating back 2,000 years to ancient Rome. And in 2014, two Californian hikers noticed some old tin cans buried along a trail, containing 1,472 unminted U.S. gold coins from the 1800s. The list goes on.

Most “hiker finds treasure” stories involve fortunes no one ever knew were hidden. It’s usually pure chance and good luck that leads people to The Find — but not always. Sometimes, fortune favors the ambitious, and it takes a good old-fashioned Goonies-style treasure hunt to make that dream a reality.

Forrest Fenn’s infamous $2 million treasure, discovered in 2020 in Yellowstone National Park, is a good example. In a poem from his memoir, Fenn penned a sequence of clues that led to his hiding place. Thousands of people struck out in search, some even died in pursuit, and eventually, a man named Jack Stuef found the chest of gold.

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

So in the spirit of adventure and good fortune, we’ve pulled together this list of hidden treasures that no one has ever found. Almost every state in the U.S. has one. Many western states, like Arizona and Montana, have many. Some read like tall tales or local legends. However, a few detailed accounts are specific enough to potentially track down.

Do some research and plan a camping or hiking trip around any one of these lost treasures, and who knows? Your story might be the next one to make headlines.

Hidden treasure hikes across the U.S.

La Caverna del Oro: Colorado

 

Supposed location: Marble Mountain, Sangre de Cristos Mountains, Southern Colorado

In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors allegedly discovered a cave rich with gold deposits 3,700m up on Marble Mountain in southern Colorado. They forced an enslaved group of Native Americans to mine and extract it. But eventually, the slaves rose up, revolting and killing all but one of the Spaniards, who escaped with as much gold as he could carry and the legend of La Caverna del Oro.

The Natives, who were nomadic and had no use for its mineral wealth, abandoned the cave. But around 1900, a woman named Elisha Horn said she discovered a skeleton clad in Spanish armor, with an arrow in its back high up on the mountain. The discovery reignited the old legend of the lost mine and led to the rediscovery and exploration of Marble Cave (aka La Caverna del Oro) in the 1920s.

 

So the story goes. Despite its name, the Spanish treasure has never been found. Other relics from the era, like a 200-year-old ladder and hammer, have been pulled out of the mines, but the gold remains elusive.

Directions: From Westcliffe, drive southwest to the Rainbow Junction trailhead off of Colorado Road 120, just below South Colony Lakes Trailhead. Start on Rainbow Trail and when you reach the ridge, look for Marble Trail on the right. The hike is 11km and involves 1,070m of elevation gain. The area is home to 11 different caves. Marble Cave (aka La Caverna del Oro) is the largest and is very dangerous to explore. It requires special equipment and training.

Reynolds Gang Treasure: Colorado

 

Supposed location: Below Mount Logan between Deer Creek and Elk Creek Drainages

In 1861, two Confederate brothers, James and John Reynolds, escaped Union imprisonment in Denver and fled to north Texas. They assembled a motley gang of southern sympathizers and returned to the Centennial State, determined to pillage and raid every settlement they could.

They robbed stages and Mexican mule trains, terrorizing settlements, and fighting Apache Indians along the way. By the time they reached Fairplay, Colorado, they’d amassed a more-than-modest hoard of gold dust, coins, and cash.

Eventually, Denver authorities dispatched scouting parties to apprehend the outlaws, and when the Reynolds Gang caught wind of them, they made immediate efforts to hide their fortune. All but a few (including John Reynolds) were apprehended and executed. But none revealed the location of the treasure.

 

Years later, when John Reynolds was on his deathbed, he allegedly drew up a map of the exact location of the buried fortune near Kenosha Pass. Many have searched for this lost fortune. If it was ever found, no one ever said a word. It is widely believed to still be hidden somewhere in the hills beneath Mount Logan.

Directions: From Denver, drive up U.S. 285 toward Kenosha Pass. Before the turn-off for Guanella Pass, you’ll pass the Santa Maria Statue of Christ on the right. According to the map, the treasure is located somewhere above the statue, between the Deer Creek and Elk Creek Drainages, which both run off of Mount Logan. You can find an image of the map here.

Lost Cabin Mine: Wyoming

 

Supposed location: Bighorn Mountains outside of Buffalo, Wyoming

Sometime around 1860, seven prospectors hit a bonanza motherlode up in Montana’s Bighorn Mountains and built a cabin near (or potentially over) the entrance. Native Americans attacked the miners, though, killing all but two of them. The survivors fled to Fort Reno with around $7,000 in gold.

Whether shrewdly or stupidly, they couldn’t recall the exact location of the mine. Nevertheless, the townspeople of Fort Reno rallied a posse and set out to find it. Those who left with the party were never seen again.

In the hundred-plus years since, many prospectors and treasure hunters have searched for the Lost Cabin Mine. Two men separately claimed to have found it. But both of them died suddenly and in extremely bizarre manners before they could disclose the location.

It remains one of Wyoming’s most popular tales of lost treasure — and one that’s never been resolved.

Directions: From Buffalo, Wyoming, go west into the Bighorn Mountains. Look for the dilapidated ruins of an old mining cabin and the associated mining shaft.

Henry Plummer’s Gold: Montana

 

Supposed location: Near Bannack, Montana, possibly in the Alder Gulch area

Prospectors flocked to Bannack, Wyoming, in 1863, shortly after gold was discovered nearby. With them came outlaws intent on stealing what the miners found. A group known as the Road Agent Gang nearly wiped out the prospectors in the area, stealing everything they could.

Turns out, Henry Plummer, an ex-con turned sheriff of Bannack, was also the leader of the Road Agent Gang. It’s estimated that he and his gang killed more than 120 miners, stealing the rough equivalent of $6 million in gold nuggets, gold dust, and coins.

 

Eventually, the gang took their violence too far. A posse formed in Bannack. The outlaws were hunted down and arrested, whereupon they revealed the identity of their leader. Plummer was subsequently captured and hanged with his gang. But before he died, he offered to bring the townspeople his weight in gold if they’d let him live.

He was not released, and as far as is known, no one ever found his treasure.

Directions: From Dillon, Montana, drive west along MT-287 until you reach Bannack Bench Road. Turn left and continue to Bannack State Park. The treasure is believed to be somewhere among the hills surrounding the ghost town.

Jarbridge Stage Robbery: Nevada

 

Supposed location: Between Three Creeks, Idaho, and Jarbridge, Nevada, possibly in Jarbridge Canyon

The last stage robbery in Nevada state history took place in the northern part of the state, near the Idaho border, in 1916. A two-horse mail stage was somewhere between Three Creek, Idaho, and Jarbridge, Nevada, when bandits allegedly robbed it and shot the driver in the head with a .44 caliber pistol. When a search party discovered the grisly scene, they found that $4,000 was missing.

 

A man named Ben Kuhl eventually confessed, claiming that he and the stagecoach driver had been in cahoots and buried the money in Jarbridge Canyon. But he’d shot the driver after an argument. The town convicted Kuhl and sentenced him to life in prison. The missing loot has never been discovered.

Directions: From Jarbridge, Nevada, drive north on NF-062 for 21km. Cross the border into Idaho, and continue to Jarbridge Canyon.

Leon Trabuco’s Gold: New Mexico

 

Supposed location: Near Farmington, New Mexico

In the early 1930s, a Mexican millionaire named Leon Trabuco bought up much of Mexico’s gold reserves in anticipation of rising gold prices in the U.S. He wanted to move the gold north of the border and sell for a higher price. Trabuco allegedly melted down 15 tonnes (16 tons) of gold, minting it into untraceable ingots.

However, he was unable to find a person or institution he trusted enough to hide his treasure with. So, he decided it was smarter to bury it in northern New Mexico.

Trabuco hired Red Moiser, a local pilot, to smuggle his gold cargo from Tijuana into an airstrip on the Conger Mesa near Farmington, New Mexico, one planeload at a time. There, Trabuco’s men picked up the cargo in a truck and drove it to an undisclosed location.

But shortly after they’d hidden all 15 tonnes, in 1934, the U.S. banned private gold ownership. That left Trabuco with no one to sell the illegal gold to. He died not long after, taking the location of his wealth to his grave.

However, treasure hunter Ed Foster claimed to have found some clues. Foster alleged that he’d found the airstrip Moiser used near Farmington. He said native Americans who lived nearby confirmed they’d seen Moiser’s plane land there many, many times.

He also claimed to have found a rock marked with the words “1933 16 TON,” and an out-of-place Tijuana-style home on the Ute Mountain Reservation that he believed was Trabuco’s.

Foster believed the treasure was somewhere between Conger Mesa, the Mexican-style home, and the marked rock, which he called “Shrine Rock” in his book.

Directions: From Farmington, New Mexico, drive north toward the town of La Plata, near the Colorado border. Conger Mesa is to the west of the town, accessible via numerous dirt roads.

Lost Adams’ Diggings: New Mexico

Supposed location: Southwestern New Mexico, in the area of Gila National Forest

The Lost Adams Diggings endure as one of New Mexico’s most maddening mysteries. In 1964, a man known only as Adams met a group of miners in Sacaton, Arizona, who were headed out on a prospecting mission. No one knows what Adams’ first name was, only his surname and that he was originally from Rochester, New York.

When he met the miners he had nothing to his name except 12 horses he offered to the miners if he could join them. Led by a Pima-Mexican guide, Adams and the mining group eventually discovered a canyon described as “crying tears of gold.” The deposit was so rich that the men reported finding nuggets bigger than oak nuts lying on the ground and mixed in with the soil.

They started mining, built a cabin, and amassed a fortune, which they buried much of beneath their cabin. Apache Indians warned them never to venture above the falls within the canyon. The miners said they wouldn’t, but their greed got the better of them.

Eventually, the Apaches realized the men had broken their promise not to explore above the falls and attacked the settlement. They killed almost everyone and burned the cabin.

Adams, however, managed to escape with his life. He fled all the way to Los Angeles, where he lived until the Apache Wars had ended. Then he returned to try to find his lost treasure.

He’d spend the rest of his life looking.

Many have debated the possible location of the Lost Adams Diggings over the decades, but geologically, the only place in New Mexico where that much gold could be is in the state’s southwestern quadrant. Adams himself spent much of the rest of his life searching around Reserve, New Mexico, near the northwestern corner of Gila National Forest.

Directions: Most of Southwestern New Mexico is fair game for the Lost Adams Diggings. Reserve, N.M., where Adams spent his life searching, is a good place to start. The National Forest is mountainous in that area, and there is a lot of BLM to search. But based on landmarks and descriptions of the original route, some argue that it could be in the Zuni Mountains or in the mountains south of Quemado, N.M. According to the original descriptions, the lost canyon sits at the base of two peaks that “look like sugarloaves.” The miners entered via a small opening just big enough for one rider to enter at a time.

Treasure Troves in Flagstaff: Arizona

Supposed location: On the Little Colorado River near Canyon Diablo

In the late 1800s, a man named Hermann Wolf ran a very successful Indian trading post near Canyon Diablo, Arizona — one of the most dangerous towns in the West. Due to the rampant prominence of robberies in the area, he was wary of sending his money anywhere or storing it with anyone. So, he started burying his profits.

According to legend, Wolf buried thousands of gold and silver coins in small containers all over his property. In 1901, 20 U.S. gold coins were discovered at Canyon Diablo. Then, in 1966, a bucket of Mexican silver coins was discovered as well, lending credence to the stories.

There were probably several other discoveries over the years that were never mentioned. No one knows how much loot old Wolf buried there. Today, Canyon Diablo (Two Guns) is a ghost town, but there’s no knowing how much treasure could be hiding beneath it.

Directions: From Flagstaff, drive east along I-40 for about 50km. Take exit 240 at Two Guns. Drive north about 6km until you see the ghost town of Canyon Diablo. Wolf’s trading post was located about 19km north of the town. You will be on the Navajo Reservation.

Lost Randolph Trail Cache: Oregon

 

Supposed location: Near Randolph, Oregon

When the Grouleaux (or, depending on your source, Groslius) brothers headed south from the Willamette Valley in 1849 to join the California gold rush, they took the coast instead of traveling further inland. Huge river deltas would have made their passage almost impossible. But lucky for them, they didn’t have to go that far. Before even leaving Oregon, they discovered a beach literally sparkling with gold dust.

The brothers mined the area in secret for three years, amassing a fortune. But in their fourth year of mining, the word got out, and prospectors flooded the area by the hundreds. The boom town of Randolph sprung up as a result. Having had enough, the brothers sold their mining claim for $40,000 in gold.

But fearing bandits would rob them of the sum if they tried traveling home with it, they buried the loot beneath two gunpowder cans somewhere along the shore. They were already rich, and left it there like it was in a savings account they could come back to later on.

With enough money to live comfortably, they retired. But years later, when one of the brothers returned to find the hidden gold, he couldn’t locate the spot again. Forests grow fast in Oregon, and the coast changes frequently. It would have almost certainly been unrecognizable after so much time.

Their treasure was never found, and somewhere along that coastline, is a fortune worth almost $1.5 million today. After so many years, the gunpowder cans have almost certainly rusted away. But the gold should still be there, lying in wait.

Directions: From Randolph, Oregon, travel west to Bullards Beach State Park Campground. From there, search the coastline.

What should you do if you find lost or buried treasure?

Rule number one of finding buried treasure is: Contact a lawyer first. As soon as people know you have found buried treasure — be it a property owner, the government, or your crazy distant relatives — they’ll want a piece.

Remember the California couple at the top of this article? They found thousands of unminted U.S. gold coins while on a hike and told the world. As soon as the government heard about the discovery, they were contacted and told to return the stolen items as they still belonged to Uncle Sam. Had they refused, the two could have faced criminal penalties.

Of course, not telling anyone you just found treasure is illegal in most countries (and definitely in the U.S.). So if you find buried or lost treasure, the right thing to do is to alert the authorities. If you’re on private property, the find will likely belong to the owner. If you’re on public land (in a national park, national forest, or on BLM), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 says it belongs to the government.

You very well may have to turn the treasure or valuables over to the authorities. Even if you find the treasure and can stake some kind of legal claim to it (say, you found it on your property), you’ll have to report it as income and claim taxes on it. Moral of the story? Refer to rule number one.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY JENNY HALL

It was May 4, 1975. The Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition team had been living at a high altitude for six weeks, and were less than a week away from their scheduled bid for the summit of Mount Everest. Exhausted, having established camp five at just below 8,000m on the south side of the mountain, Junko Tabei and her team descended to camp two at 6,300m to rest.

Then –- avalanche!

In the early hours, tons of ice and snow engulfed the camp, burying several of the teammates. Crushed by the snow and ice, Tabei was unable to move. It took the strength of four Sherpas, the elite Nepali climbing guides assisting the expedition, to pull her out. Suffering severe bruising, Tabei argued that she did not need to be returned to base camp to recover and would remain at Camp 2.

“There was no way I was leaving the mountain,” she later recalled in her memoir.

It had taken five years for this group –- the first all-women team –- to get to Everest. The pressure on them to succeed was immense, given the limited number of annual international permits to climb Mount Everest issued by the Nepalese government. If they gave up, they might have to wait several years to make another attempt.

Meanwhile, on the Tibetan side of the mountain, Tabei’s team had competition. A 200-strong Chinese team was also working to place a woman on the summit at the same time.

A man's world

From the late 1950s, Tibetan women were recruited to participate in state-sponsored Chinese mountaineering expeditions. In 1958, Pan Duo had been selected to participate in the successful Chinese 1960 Everest expedition –- but was ordered to remain below 6,400m because above that height was “a man’s world.” Nonetheless, Pan Duo -- referred to as “Mrs. Phanthog” in some older accounts -- was celebrated in her country and elected deputy captain of the 1975 Chinese Everest Expedition.

Unfortunately, the Chinese team suffered a climbing accident resulting in the death of a team member. They retreated to recover, only to be ordered by the Chinese government to “climb ahead of the Japanese women.”

They were too late. On May 16, 1975, the all-women Japanese expedition worked together to place Tabei on the summit of Everest. Two team members, Tabei and Yuriko Watanabe, had been nominated to make the summit attempt. However, other teammates were suffering from altitude sickness, so Watanabe was assigned to help return them to Camp 2.

The ascent Tabei was making was arduous. Given her injuries, it took great tenacity to muster the strength to continue. But finally, she took her last steps to the summit, becoming the first woman and 40th person, according to the latest official record, to summit the peak. She was part of only the tenth successful Everest expedition, later recalling:

I felt pure joy as my thoughts registered: ‘Here is the summit. I don’t have to climb any more.’

Another attempt

Eleven days later, the Chinese team returned to the high slopes to make another attempt. Using minimal oxygen, Pan Duo was also successful, becoming the second woman to summit Everest, and the first to climb the northern side of the mountain.

Prior to these two successful expeditions, only 38 people had summited Everest, all of them men. News of Tabei’s feat traveled fast across Asia, leading to national celebrations in Japan, Nepal and India. But it made little impact in the west.

In my own career as both a mountaineer and researcher of adventure tourism, I had been struck by how few women I encountered on the mountainside. I wanted to understand why this might be, and what women had achieved. It was through this research that I discovered Tabei’s story.

I was astonished both by her achievements –- she is also the first woman to complete the Seven Summits -– and by how few prominent mountaineering organizations and mountaineers appeared to know about her.

Tabei’s bravery helped her lead record-setting all-women expeditions and overcome the mountain of sexism in this male-dominated space. Yet very few organizations, even in Japan, have thought to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by a woman.

Breaking the mold

Historically, men have dominated the public record in mountaineering. In the last few years, the 70th anniversary of the first summit of Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay has been marked, along with the centenary of the unsuccessful and fatal attempt by George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924.

During that period, women were excluded from many mountaineering clubs. When they did join, they often faced prejudice, were discouraged and sometimes not permitted to publish records of their adventures. In 1975, women were finally admitted to the Alpine Club, the first and one of the most prestigious climbing institutions.

At a time when Japanese women were expected to remain at home, many members of the Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition, including Tabei, were working, with two of them also raising children. Tabei’s daughter, Noriko, was three at the time of her Everest summit. Tabei later revealed that the expedition encountered significant resistance:

Most of the men in the alpine community opposed our plan, claiming it would be impossible for a women-only expedition to reach Everest.

Torn

As a married woman and the assistant expedition leader, Tabei felt torn between motherhood and mountaineering, explaining: “Although I would never forfeit Everest, I felt pulled in the two directions of mountains and motherhood.”

Facing unsympathetic attitudes from team members when childcare conflicts arose, Tabei realized she needed to put in extra effort to prove herself as a leader.

Years before the Everest expedition, Tabei and other Japanese women were already logging major climbing achievements across the globe. These included the first ascent of the north face of the Matterhorn by an all-women’s team in 1967, and the first all-women’s Japanese expedition to the Himalayas in 1970 to climb Annapurna III. Tabei was both the first woman and Japanese person to ascend the peak.

This set the scene for the Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition. To locate and train suitable candidates for the expedition, Tabei helped establish the Joshi-Tohan Japanese Ladies Climbing Club, founded on the slogan: “Let’s go on an overseas expedition by ourselves.”

Defying norms

Tabei’s contribution to women’s high-altitude mountaineering was astounding. To reach Everest, she defied mid-20th-century social norms that tied Japanese women to domestic roles, later musing: “I tried to picture myself as a traditional Japanese wife who followed her husband. The idea never sat well with me.”

Throughout her career, Tabei contributed significantly to the emerging culture of women’s climbing and mountaineering expeditions. She felt strongly that climbing with other women was more rewarding because there was greater physical equality.

In 1992, she became the first woman to ascend the highest peaks on all seven continents. Using her celebrity, Tabei was also an activist for environmental change in high-altitude regions, having grown appalled by the degradation of fragile mountain glaciers that was being caused by the mountaineering industry.

With her friend and Everest teammate, Setsuko Kitamura, Tabei established the first Mount Everest conference in 1995, inviting all 32 women who had by then successfully climbed Everest (not all attended). Under her leadership, this transnational exchange created a space to celebrate women’s mountaineering achievements.

Soon after her Everest achievement, Tabei had been a symbol of social progress and women’s emancipation at the UN International Women’s Year world conference. Yet her status as one of the greatest high-altitude mountaineers has since faded from the public eye. This has much to do with the stories we tell about man –- and it’s almost always a man –- vs. nature.

Telling her own story

Hillary’s much-lauded autobiography, High Adventure (1955), was published two years after his first successful ascent of Everest. In contrast, it was 42 years after her ascent before Tabei’s memoir, Honouring High Places, was published and translated.

The way Japanese women’s experiences were represented in the media did not, in Tabei’s view, represent the reality of women’s experiences. She was particularly perplexed by the inability of the press to see beyond her gender. She was repeatedly asked how it felt “as a woman” to climb at high altitudes.

Portrayals of Tabei focused on her stature as a small Japanese woman. This only reinforced the perception that women like her did not fit the norm of the heroic white, male mountaineer. She reflected:

When people meet me for the first time, they are surprised by my size. They expect me to be bigger than I am, more strapping, robust, like a wrestler … I was always puzzled by this, by people’s obsession with the physical appearance of a mountaineer.

A new approach

To counter this narrative, Tabei brought a new approach to writing about Japanese women mountaineers’ achievements -– challenging the tendency of traditional Japanese expedition publications to gloss over the harsh realities of expedition life.

Critical of the flowery and vain writing style of these reports, Tabei’s frank accounts reported on the “unkinder side of human behavior.” Making tough choices was particularly difficult for women, she wrote, because of their social conditioning to be a “good person”:

It was unusual enough to be a female climber in that era of yesteryear, let alone to make a stand in front of your friends that would possibly upset them.

Transcending these social norms had a personal impact. Tabei lamented that, although “I remained strong-willed about Everest, tears of doubt fell down my cheeks at night.”

Raw emotions

Her honesty was criticized by some in the established mountaineering community in Japan, particularly in her published account, Annapurna: Women’s Battle, which expressed the raw emotions and feelings experienced on their 1970 expedition. Tabei shared “the feelings of the team members when things failed to go in the direction they had envisioned…We put our honest experiences on paper.”

Reflecting on how she had to overcome social norms to lead the expedition –- “In my day, we were strictly advised that being different was abnormal” –- Tabei concluded that: “A person must be able to voice her opinion without worrying about criticism.”

Ever since the late 1850s, women have made a significant yet often-hidden contribution to mountaineering. It retains a powerful legacy of male-dominated clubs and governing institutions founded on masculine norms such as risk-taking. This has often cast mountaineering achievements in a way that privileges men.

Clubs established traditions based on the first ascents of mountains, very few of which were made by women. Their absence from leading mountaineering clubs and lack of representation in published club journals meant their achievements were often attributed to male companions.

Meta Brevoort

In 1872, the American climber Meta Brevoort felt it best, due to social prejudice, to publish her extraordinary first ascents in the European Alps under the name of her nephew, William A.B. Coolidge. Mountaineer and author David Mazel notes that Brevoort’s account was “carefully written to conceal the author’s sex.”

Mountain exploration and climbing have traditionally been framed as heroic endeavors dominated by men. Figures such as Hillary, Mallory, and Reinhold Messner are celebrated for their bravery, strength, and leadership — traits associated with masculinity.

Early mountaineering narratives often emphasized physical endurance, dominance over nature, and the ability to withstand extreme conditions – reinforcing ideas of masculine heroism. Mountains as towering, imposing, and seemingly unconquerable landscapes have been metaphorically linked to power and challenge.

Traditions that have been passed down through generations –- from ascent styles to route names –- have also been synonymous with masculinity. In the words of mountaineering historian Walt Unsworth, climbing Everest “is the story of Man’s attempts to climb a very special mountain.”

A daunting prospect

This has had real-world consequences for mountaineering. Today, only 6% of British mountain guides are women, while globally, less than 2% of those registered to the International Federation of Mountain Guide Association (IFMGA) are women. If you don’t see your face reflected, it becomes a daunting prospect to imagine yourself in mountaineering, whether as a mountain guide or an amateur mountaineer like me.

By 2024, women represented 13% of all Everest summiters since 1953, yet their stories are seldom told. White, male, able-bodied, and middle-class voices dominate representations in published records and popular portrayals of adventure on the world’s highest mountain.

As anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner attests, this is not surprising given mountaineering’s history as a Western imperialist and colonizing project that aimed to conquer nations and nature, built upon all-male institutions. Yet men and women have the same statistical odds of making a successful summit or dying on Everest.

Julie Rak, in her book False Summit, shows how some accounts can treat women’s achievements with ambivalence, and at worst question their authenticity. It has even been suggested that Tabei was effectively dragged up the mountain by her friend, the male Sherpa Ang Tsering.

Having suffered significant trauma following the avalanche that nearly wiped out their 1975 expedition, Tabei showed enormous courage and resilience to summit Everest just a few days later. She describes the ascent as difficult –- and yes, accepted help from Ang Tsering –- but this was her achievement, not a “stunt” to be denied by those who were not even present.

A shift since then

Since Tabei’s Everest summit, mountaineering has undergone changes as a sport, shifting from an elite, exploratory pursuit to a commercialized industry where wealthy clients can hire companies to reach summits with professional support.

From the late 1980s, high-altitude mountaineering became a valuable tourism commodity. Seizing the opportunity to boost tourism, the Nepalese government began to issue more permits, fueling the growth of commercial companies offering clients the opportunity to be guided up 8,000m summits. In 2023, Nepal welcomed over 150,000 high-altitude trekking and mountaineering visitors, with 47 teams attempting to climb Everest.

Yet despite the popularity and commercialization of the sport, mountaineering remains stubbornly resistant to diversity.

Scholar Jennifer Hargreaves argues that women have been excluded from being represented as the “sporting hero.” What constitutes our cultural identity, meaning and values almost exclusively solidifies heroic masculinity in most forms of sport, including mountaineering.

And much of this is due to the stories that are –- not –- told.

Ambivalent attitudes persist

Delphine Moraldo’s research found that of the mountaineering autobiographies published in Britain and Europe from the late 1830s to 2013, only 6% were written by women.

Historically, literary representations of women mountaineers have often been met with ambivalence, their achievements portrayed as lesser. Women are stereotyped as weaker, bound to domesticity, and lacking the hardiness required to be a “good mountaineer.”

These perceptions, coupled with a lack of representation, have reduced women’s opportunities to secure funding for expeditions or to access female-specific clothing and equipment. Tabei and her team had to make their own expedition clothing because women’s sizes did not exist, a problem that remains today. When raising sponsorship for Everest, she was told: “Raise your children and keep your family tight, rather than do something like this.”

But while there is still a mountain to climb when it comes to attaining equality in adventure sports, there is a growing body of research and media celebrating women’s achievements, from campaigns such as Sport England’s This Girl Can to films charting the lives of some women mountaineers.

A hidden sisterhood

Junko Tabei and Pan Duo’s names may never be as well-known as Edmund Hillary’s. But they are just two of many women whose achievements reach far beyond the peaks. I’ve written about many of them in my research.

Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz was the third woman and first from Europe to summit Everest. When asked in 1979 by high-altitude record holder Maurice Herzog why she had climbed Everest, Rutkiewicz responded that she did it for “women’s liberation.” By the late 1980s, such activism was harnessed by large sponsors such as Tata Steel, who recruited Indian mountaineer Bachendri Pal, the fifth woman to summit Everest, to lead a women’s adventure program.

Corporate sponsorship has, however, eluded many leading women mountaineers. Despite all her outstanding achievements –- including holding a world-record ten Everest summits by a woman –- Lhakpa Sherpa struggled for years to achieve recognition and the status of her male contemporaries. In 2019, writer Megan Mayhew Bergman asked why she didn’t have sponsors.

More recently, however, Lhakpa Sherpa’s mountaineering career was documented in the 2023 Netflix documentary Mountain Queen, which raised her profile and has led to new sponsorship opportunities.

Changing times

There is also work being done to change the exclusion of women from mountaineering. In Nepal and around the world, charitable organizations have been initiated by women mountaineers to help their fellow women climbers, including Empowering Women Nepal and 3Sisters Adventure Trekking.

My research has shown how women and mountaineers from other marginalized backgrounds can use their successes to become role models for and drivers of social change.

Tabei, for example, was appalled at the degradation mountaineering had caused to Mount Everest, and spoke out about the need for responsible mountaineering and conservation. She led cleanup expeditions and researched the environmental impact of tourism and climate change on both mountain ecosystems and local communities.

Tabei’s efforts helped bring global attention to the need for conservation in high-altitude environments, inspiring climbers to take a more responsible approach to their expeditions.

In research about Asian women’s contribution to climbing Everest, I examined how the struggle for women’s emancipation, empowerment and recognition is a phenomenon that is shared globally. A new generation of Asian women mountaineers such as Dawa Yangzum Sherpa, the first woman to achieve IFMGA status, and Shailee Basnet are defying gender norms and achieving status as internationally recognized mountaineers and mountaineering guides.

Sagarmatha Expedition

Basnet became one of ten women to scale Everest in 2008 as part of Sagarmatha Expedition, which was established to draw attention to climate change and gender equality, and to reclaim the Nepali name for the mountain: Sagarmatha. The expedition brought together ten women from six different religious, caste and ethnic backgrounds. All ten reached the summit, making it the most successful women’s expedition to date.

Following this, in 2014, Basnet led the formation of the first all-women Seven Summits project to climb the highest peak on every continent. Importantly, she harnessed the team’s newfound profile to undertake a large-scale social justice program, visiting hundreds of schools, leading hikes, and giving talks across the Kathmandu Valley. Their mission was to improve educational awareness concerning opportunities for women and girls, and also to protect the environment.

‘A life we would never regret’

Since the mid-1950s, a hidden sisterhood has forged a route for women to access high-altitude mountaineering. Their impact has reached far beyond the expeditions they led.

Women have used their status as mountaineers to empower and support other women to achieve social, political, and environmental justice, and raise awareness about poverty, sex trafficking, religious and ethnic marginalization, environmental degradation, and the impact of mass tourism.

Junko Tabei was a pioneer whose tenacity helped a whole generation of women in mountaineering. By not recognizing their achievements, we deny an important part of our cultural heritage –- and miss the opportunity to learn and share the inspirational work that women continue to undertake.

Tabei’s memoir is not simply a remarkable mountaineering account, it is, in the words of Julie Rak, a feminist text that challenges what society has always thought it means to be heroic, brave and adventurous.

Tabei died in 2016 at the age of 77. On the 50th anniversary of one of her many achievements, it’s fitting to end with these words from her memoir:

My approach was one of not worrying about the loss of a job or missing out on a promotion. I felt it was important to live a life we would never regret.

Reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

BY RACHELLE SCHRUTE

In a groundbreaking leap reminiscent of Jurassic Park, scientists have successfully revived the dire wolf, an apex predator that vanished nearly 13,000 years ago.

The revival project, spearheaded by startup company Colossal Bioscience, used advanced DNA editing techniques. By sequencing ancient DNA samples recovered from fossils preserved in tar pits, researchers reconstructed a complete genome of the dire wolf, closely related yet distinctly separate from modern grey wolves.

Two male pups, Remus and Romulus, were born in October 2024, followed by a female named Khaleesi in January 2025. Fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones will likely recognize both the creature and the inspiration behind their names.

But are these really dire wolves or just genetically modified grey wolves? That “grey” area is up for interpretation.

While Stanford led the genetic effort, biotech startup Colossal Biosciences played a pivotal role in bringing the project to life. Known for its mission to resurrect the woolly mammoth, Colossal provided logistical support, funding, and proprietary gene-editing tools that accelerated the dire wolf program.

Colossal’s involvement also sparked public curiosity, thanks in part to its high-profile partnerships and unapologetically bold marketing. I mean, just take a look at the company’s website. It’s hard to decide whether it’s legit or a carefully crafted sci-fi movie promo.

CRISPR to the Rescue

Using CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology, the team introduced precise genetic edits into embryos of modern wolf relatives, effectively recreating dire wolf traits. After several attempts, the first litter of dire wolves was successfully born last fall in a controlled facility in Montana.

These animals are designed to thrive in rugged, challenging environments. The project’s next step involves assessing their viability in protected wilderness areas.

Dire wolves, once dominant across North America, were notably larger and sturdier than today’s wolves, capable of taking down massive prey such as bison and giant sloths. Their reintroduction could radically reshape modern ecosystems, presenting both exciting opportunities and ecological challenges.

The project has sparked vigorous debate within the conservation community. Supporters view it as a monumental achievement in species restoration, while skeptics caution about potential risks to existing wildlife.

Are they actually dire wolves?

Controversy has arisen regarding the authenticity of these revived animals. Critics argue that despite genetic editing, these creatures may simply be genetically modified modern wolves rather than genuine dire wolves.

Scientists at Colossal emphasize the precision of their genetic reconstruction and the clear phenotypic distinctions between these animals and contemporary wolves.

For my part — I dunno.

As someone who spent a lot of time in college bent over a microscope, I’m torn. I genuinely geek out over the advances in genome sequencing. I also scream at the movie screen when people say, “It’s perfectly safe.”

I’m caught somewhere between awe and existential dread. On one hand, this is science doing precisely what science dreams of: resurrecting legends. On the other hand, I’ve seen every film that starts this way, and spoiler alert, it rarely ends with a happy woodland ecosystem or a fun amusement park ride in a Jeep.

We already have a hard enough time managing and conserving the wildlife that exists naturally on this planet as it is. Do we really need to meddle with introducing super wolves? What’s the gain? We can’t even decide what to do with the wolves we already have.

But here’s hoping our real-life reboot has fewer velociraptor vibes and more mutual coexistence. In any case, maybe keep an extra eye on your livestock moving forward and double-check to make sure your electric fences are working.

This article first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY WILL BRENDZA

After Kevin Silvernale finished thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016, he was hooked and started devising his own long-distance trail. The 34-year-old Colorado local went on to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2018, the Continental Divide Trail in 2021, and the Colorado Trail in 2022.

Then, in 2024, he became the first person to complete the Northern Colorado Trail (NOCO) — a new thru-hike he designed himself.

“I started plotting points on the map about a year and a half ago, and then last August, I went out and went for it,” he said.

The 299-mile (481km) route starts at the Dunraven Trailhead near Estes Park and ends at the Transfer Trailhead in Glenwood Springs, Colo.

“I knew Northern Colorado had a lot of gems in it, so I was really trying to sequence in as many of them as I could,” Silvernale said. “It’s very scenic. You’re up high on ridgelines for a lot of it. You’re in mountainous terrain. It’s rugged. It’s challenging. But you do get the alpine lakes and the scenic views and all the cool stuff that comes with that.”

Silvernale only established the route in 2024, but he fully expects thru-hikers to be out on the NOCO this summer. Since publishing the map and his website for the route, he’s received many inquiries and questions.

If you’re looking for a new thru-hike or just want to explore a new part of Colorado on foot, the NOCO passes through some of the most beautiful, unique, and remote parts of the state.

How to hike the ‘NOCO Trail’

Northern Colorado is one of Colorado’s most unvisited regions. While the I-70 corridor, the Arkansas River Valley, San Luis Valley, Roaring Fork Valley, and South Park see a lot of traffic through the spring, summer, and fall, northern Colorado gets far less attention.

However, the areas where the NOCO trail passes are exceptionally beautiful. The NOCO route starts on the eastern side of RMNP. You’ll need a day permit to enter the park (or an overnight permit if you plan on camping within it).

Once you exit the national park, you enter the Comanche Wilderness Area and descend toward Peterson Lake. Then, the trail turns north, passing through the Rawah Wilderness, and approaches the town of Walden. That’s the first opportunity to stop in a town, resupply, and rest if you have the time.

On approach to Walden, there are two alternate routes hikers can choose from to avoid private property.

From Walden, hikers move east into the Sawatch Range and then south toward Steamboat Springs and Yampah. If you need some hot springs rejuvenation (or just a hot meal), that’s your last opportunity to get it before embarking into the Flat Tops Wilderness. Hikers traverse the Devil’s Causeway and eventually descend south into Glenwood Springs to the terminus of the trail.]

All told, there are four trail sections: Dunraven TH to Walden (86 miles), Walden to Highway 40 (65 miles), Highway 40 to Yampah (56 miles), and Yampah to Glenwood Springs (91 miles).

“It took me 19 days with two days in town and a couple of short days just leaving or getting into town to resupply,” Silvernale said.

1,000+ waypoints: camping, water, and more

Along the NOCO route, there is ample dispersed camping, according to Silvernale. There are also state campsites where you can reserve a spot ahead of time. Depending on how you plan your thru-hike, there are a lot of options.

There are also sections that pass close to private land, so if you make an impromptu stop, be sure you’re allowed to camp.

Check the Trail Alerts and Updates webpage on the NOCO site for a full list of camping options, as well as water sources, trailheads and parking lots, trail intersections, town resupply waypoints, and scenic waypoints.

Silvernale has mapped out over 1,000 waypoints along the route. His site has datasheet updates and edit logs, alternate route maps, and other useful resources for thru-hikers.

Not easy

Mapping the NOCO route wasn’t easy, Silvernale said. In fact, it’s still an ongoing process as he works out the best way to avoid roads and private property. He’s doing community outreach to spread the stoke about this new trail. But he cautions hikers to be very careful.

“One of the big things I want to make sure people are aware of is the private property issue,” he said. Parts of the NOCO trail pass very close to property lines. Hikers could be tempted to trespass and shave some time and distance off the route.

“Just respect the ranchers and the community out in these areas,” he said. “They don’t necessarily know that hikers will be coming through.”

That’s been a hurdle. However, the hardest part about hiking the NOCO wasn’t avoiding ranches and private property, he said. It’s the general lack of information that really makes this a different experience from other, more established thru-hikes.

“All of the other [long distance] trails, you have a guidebook or thousands of other people reporting what’s going on on the trail, whether it be water sources or campsites or fire closures and all that stuff,” he said. By contrast, the NOCO doesn’t have nearly the same level of feedback.

Hopeful NOCO hikers won’t be flying quite as blind as Silvernale did last August. But there will still be a lot of unknowns they encounter. He encourages anyone who hikes it to relay information as much as possible. You can join the NOCO Facebook group for real-time updates, to ask questions, and plan your trek.

It’s been a lot of work establishing this route, Silvernale admitted. But it’s been worth the effort. Creating a brand new long-distance trail in the state he lives in is a very rewarding undertaking — especially for someone who finds such joy in thru-hiking. “I feel honored,” he said. “It’s been a way for me to give back to the [thru-hiking] community.”

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY JUAN HERNANDEZ

Officials at the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center have confirmed that three skiers on a heli-skiing tour died in an avalanche near Girdwood, Alaska, southeast of Anchorage, this week.

The avalanche occurred on March 4 at about 3:30 pm.

The skiers were traveling with Chugach Powder Guides, and the guides with them immediately attempted to save the victims. A spokesperson from the company told the Anchorage Daily News that the slide started at an altitude of about 1,070m and continued all the way down to 200m, giving some perspective of how massive the avalanche was.

One victim under 14 meters of snow

Guides were able to locate signals from avalanche beacons, with the lowest signal coming around 14 meters deep. An hour later, it was determined “the victims were clearly unrecoverable” given guides' resources.

“We are sorry to report an avalanche resulting in multiple fatalities in the west fork of the Twentymile River yesterday afternoon,” the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center said on Wednesday. “Details on this accident are still emerging, and we will share more information as it becomes available.”

According to the National Avalanche Center, this accident raises the total of avalanche fatalities in the U.S. this winter to 18. That’s already higher than last winter’s 13 recorded avalanche deaths. A study published in late 2024 found that avalanche survival rates have increased notably over the past four decades.

“Up until 1990, 43.5 percent of buried victims survived; now, it’s 53.5 percent,” said Simon Rauch, the study’s lead author and an emergency physician at Eurac Research, based in the northern Italian town of Bolzano, crediting faster response times for the improvement. “Time is the critical factor, and 10 minutes is not long. Therefore, it’s essential to understand that the survival chances in an avalanche burial are three times higher when excursion companions are able to dig out the victims, rather than when organized rescue teams are involved.”

The original version of this article first appeared in The Inertia.

In surfing, there aren’t too many movies that get it right. It’s not even about the surfing, really. The ones that get it right speak to the etched-in surfing mentality. Those that do become cult classics. Movies like Point Break and Big Wednesday. Movies like Endless Summer. And movies like North Shore.

North Shore has been endlessly quoted and loved for its perfect amount of cheese. It featured a whole host of top-level surfers, like Gerry Lopez, Laird Hamilton, Mark Occhilupo, and Robbie Page, but the real stars of the show were actors, not surfers. Actors who surfed, yes, but actors first. Matt Adler and John Philbin, cast respectively as Rick Kane and Turtle, made North Shore into one of the most-loved and iconic surf movies of all time.

Adler’s road to landing the life-changing role of Rick Kane was winding, but North Shore wasn’t the only classic he had a part in. Before that, he had roles in Teen Wolf and Flight of the Navigator, two of my all-time favorite films. I knew Adler was a surfer, which got me thinking about how a starring role in a surf film would affect one’s day-to-day surfing life, so I called him up to ask. And as the best conversations often do, ours meandered pleasantly through the course of his life.

Adler grew up in Los Angeles and started surfing in the mid-to-late ’70s during the Dogtown and the Z-Boys era. Surfing was growing up and had kickstarted skateboarding. It was morphing into a cultural movement that made a statement about who a person was.

Surfing was cooler

“I started surfing when I was 12 or 13,” Adler remembered. “I had a friend who was a little older than me, and he had a car. He was learning to surf, and I had an inherent understanding that surfing was cooler than just about any other sport, so I wanted to do it.”

That friend lent Adler a single fin, one of those classic ’70s boards without much rocker.

“I was tiny, maybe four feet tall,” Adler said. “He basically gave me this 6’4″ single fin, a board that I would covet now. It had kind of a wide point forward, and it looked like it would be perfect for huge point break surf. It had a pulled-in swallow tail, and it just looked so cool.”

Adler’s maiden voyage was, to my ears at least, something out of a dream: First Point Malibu in its heyday. But when it comes to surfing, no one succeeds right away.

“We paddled out to Malibu, and he goes, ‘Just do what I do,'” Adler laughed. “Then he was gone. I had no idea how to surf or how to get up or how to paddle, you know? I just sort of watched and tried. It took me several sessions to catch a wave or be in the right place. But even so, I was just hooked.”

An eye on Hollywood

Over the next few years, Adler continued surfing, like thousands of other Los Angeles kids. He had an eye on Hollywood too, like thousands of other Los Angeles kids, and soon landed a couple of commercials. Those led to a small part on a show called Trapper John, MD, a spinoff of M.A.S.H., and then came Teen Wolf. That was in the early ’80s, five years before North Shore was released.

“It was a really great experience for me,” he said of Teen Wolf. “I made great friends on the set of that movie and started to learn. It was like my first dance. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know where to stand or where to look, or what anybody’s jobs were. It was all brand new, and I just loved it.”

Next was Flight of the Navigator, which served as a trampoline into the leading role in North Shore.

“The director of that movie was Randal Kleiser, who produced the North Shore,” Adler explained. After we’d finished Flight of the Navigator, I was back in Los Angeles, going on auditions. He called me and said, ‘Hey, Matt, do you happen to surf?’ I said, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I do.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, that’s awesome. We’re gonna make this surf movie in Hawaii. Would you audition?'”

Both actor and surfer

Adler, of course, said yes. He needed to make a video that proved he could surf because Universal Pictures didn’t want to give the leading part to a surfer who’d never acted before. But it was difficult to find an actor who could surf well enough, so Adler enlisted a friend’s help, lugged a giant ’70s camera down to Zuma Beach on a junky three-foot day, and got to work. Adler wasn’t sure that his skill level was high enough to be considered for the role, but once he saw the footage, Kleiser was convinced that he’d found his man.

“I was able to get a couple of waves and a couple of turns, and that was it,” Adler recalled. “I sent it to Randal [Kleiser]. He was like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe it. You really do surf.’ I guess they had a lot of people who couldn’t make a video, and Randal and the director really wanted someone to play that part that could bring more credibility and to have the surfing footage be authentic.”

And so Adler suddenly found himself on a plane heading for Hawaii, his heart in his throat and his nerves firing on all cylinders. He was an avid surfer and, like many young men his age at the time, had his surf heroes — many of whom were set to be acting alongside him in his first leading role.

Meeting the icons

“The first night in Hawaii, prepping to shoot the movie, I went to dinner with Ken Bradshaw, Randal Kleiser, and Gerry Lopez,” he told me. “I think Mark Foo was at this dinner, too. Just imagine: I’m a 20-year-old who’s grown up surfing in Southern California. My room was full of posters of these guys. I can barely speak. I’m just listening to them talk about movies and surfing. And Gerry says to me — this is one of the first things Gerry Lopez ever said to me — ‘Matt, tell me this isn’t going to be another anchor around the neck of surfing.'”

The pressure, as you’d imagine, was immense, but throughout the course of filming, things got a little more comfortable. Not only because Adler got to know his heroes as humans, but because he realized something important: although they were surfers, he was an actor. They were acting in a surfing movie, so they, for the most part, were nervous too.

“Once we were doing acting scenes, then I was more in my milieu, and I felt much more confident doing that than I did paddling out to Waimea with Ken Bradshaw and Gerry Lopez and Mark Foo. That was an incredible experience that I treasure and I’m so lucky that I got to do it, but that was… uncomfortable for me. I would imagine that some of the other guys were really, really nervous to be on camera trying to shoot a movie.”

Wonderfully kitschy

One of the greatest things about North Shore is that it’s not a film that should have worked. It was wonderfully kitschy, full of slightly wooden acting (looking at you, Laird), and incredible amounts of cheese. But it did work. It felt immediately nostalgic. It had that certain indescribable something that makes a film a cult classic.

“That’s what happens to a cult movie,” Adler chuckled when I asked him if he had any idea why North Shore became as popular as it did. “Those moments become touchstones where people in the audience go crazy after they’ve seen it 50 times, and they still want to see it again. I don’t have an explanation. I had no idea it would become this, especially since it bombed in the theater. It made zero money. It was gone in a couple of weeks, and then, you know, this thing happened. I can’t explain it.”

When the movie was first released, the premise was, to be frank, ridiculous. A kid from Arizona wins a contest in a wave pool, takes his giant check for $500, and goes to “ride the big waves of the North Shore.”

Wave pools of the '80s

Wave pools in the 1980s were not the wave pools of today. The wave pools of today were not even considered possible, save for in the mind of some sci-fi obsessed surfer. In a funny little bit of trivia, the shooting location that was supposed to be Big Surf in Tempe, Arizona in the movie has become the Palm Springs Surf Club. Adler recently got the chance to give that wave a shot, and all these years later, it was a hard thing for him to wrap his head around.

“Kalani Robb got in touch with me to go down and surprise his partner, Cheyne Magnusson, and surf that pool with those guys,” Adler said. “We pulled in, and it’s the same place. I couldn’t handle it. My mind was so blown. It’s interesting, you know? Look at the wave pool in the movie, and then look at the footage from Palm Springs Surf Club now. That’s the evolution of the wave pool.”

To make things even stranger, in a moment reminiscent of that first dinner in Hawaii, Adler was joined at the Palm Springs Surf Club by Caity Simmers, Sierra Kerr, and Italo Ferreira.

“It was this full-on pro lineup,” Adler laughed. “They wanted to surf the hollowest, gnarliest waves. It was a little bit of a hellscape for me, but it was an incredible experience.”

A look into our present

As it turned out, North Shore was a look into our present. A time when a kid who grew up in a wave pool very well could become a champion surfer. Adler and John Philbin are fast friends to this day, and they spoke about that a few years ago.

“John said, ‘You know, the whole premise of the movie North Shore is going to come true,'” Adler said. “‘There’s a kid who’s going to have learned how to surf in a wave pool and will become a world champion. It’s gonna happen.’ The premise of the movie was so far-fetched that no one would ever have thought that. And now it’s happening.”

The idea of a North Shore sequel or remake has been floating around for years. Adler is not a fan of that idea despite the fact that it would likely be a payday for him since North Shore would not be North Shore without him. But as Point Break proved — as well as countless other remakes — adding to a classic almost never works.

“I’m not one of the people who wants to see a North Shore 2,” Adler said. “You’d think I would, but I don’t. How often does anybody ever make a decent movie that’s a sequel to something that’s so beloved or cultish, and how many times does that work out? Does it not just dilute the strength and the magic of the first one? I just don’t see any good that can come from it today. That’s the truth. It’s a nostalgic cult classic, and who wants to mess with that?”

The original version of this article first appeared on The Inertia.

BY WILL BRENDZA

Luck comes in many forms, but for a father and son hiking in Utah’s Snow Canyon on February 17, it came in the form of an abandoned backpack. Stuck overnight high up on a canyon ledge, Julian Hernandez and his 12-year-old son would have had a different outcome had it not been for someone else’s misfortune, said Sergeant Jacob Paul with Washington County Search and Rescue.

“They literally had just about everything that they needed to stay about as comfortable as they possibly could until our rescuers found them,” Paul said. “There’s no other way to describe it other than a miracle.”

The pair were hiking Red Mountain Trail, a 22km route that winds from the northeastern corner of Red Mountain Wilderness down past Snow Canyon State Park and into Ivans, Utah. That was where they’d planned to be picked up by Hernandez’s wife. But they never made it.

According to Paul, near the top of the Snow Canyon overlook, they lost the trail and hiked down a sloped cliff that they couldn’t climb back up.

“Once you get up to the top, there’s no clear designated trail,” Paul said. “So it’s really easy to get lost.”

Stranded on the cliff, unable to ascend or descend safely, the two were in a precarious situation. The sun was setting. The father and son were out of food and water and only had the clothes on their backs.

According to Paul, they were very unprepared for the lengthy hike they’d embarked on — let alone to spend a cold winter night exposed on a cliff.

However, as fate would have it, someone else had gotten lost in that exact same area just weeks prior, and they’d lost a backpack full of supplies.

One rescue leads to another

In early January, another hiker found himself helplessly perched on almost the exact same ledge as Hernandez and his son. Levi Dittman, a 15-year-old local from Ivans, was hiking the Red Mountain Trail and had similarly gotten lost and stuck 20 meters up the canyon wall.

In an attempt to get from one ledge to another, Dittman threw his pack. It was too far of a jump to make safely, though, and he couldn’t retrieve it.

Rescuers eventually found him, retrieved him from the rock wall, and brought him home safely. But his pack was left behind on that cliff for Hernandez and his son to find.

“The moment we found the backpack — it was lovely,” Hernandez said in an interview with ABC4. “We found some food in there, so that kept us pretty well. It kept us pretty well into the morning.”

Food wasn’t all they found in the pack. Inside, there was a large bottle of water, a first-aid kit, and two emergency blankets. They swaddled up in the blankets, ate snacks, and stayed hydrated while they waited for their rescue.

Searchers eventually located them by following Hernandez’s footprints. They made contact around 3:20 am, roughly seven hours after the search had begun. A helicopter from Salt Lake City was called in, and the two stranded hikers were safely extracted.

“It dropped down into the high 30s that night, and there was some pretty significant windchill, too,” Paul said. “I can’t say for sure that they wouldn’t have survived, but they would not have been in the shape that they were in if they hadn’t found that pack.”

Be prepared

The odds of getting lost and stuck on a cliff in the exact spot where another person left a backpack are extremely low. But the odds that whoever that pack belonged to was prepared with food, water, and emergency supplies? Paul said, “It’s ridiculous.”

“They were out of supplies by the time that they got stuck on this ledge. And they wouldn’t have had anything that they needed. They weren’t prepared clothing-wise. They weren’t prepared with any equipment, really, that they needed for that eventuality,” Paul said. “So they were extremely lucky to find that pack.”

Always prepare yourself for an emergency when you’re venturing out into the wilderness. It’s also important to let people know where you’re headed. Had Hernandez’s wife not notified emergency services that her husband and son hadn’t shown up where and when they were supposed to, no one would have called search and rescue.

Sure, you might get lucky if you get lost and find a fortuitous backpack loaded with food, water, and survival supplies. But you shouldn’t count on it.

“I’ve been involved with search and rescue for about four years now, and this is the only situation that I’ve seen where a piece of gear that was left from another rescue ended up practically saving the other group,” he said.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY JUAN HERNANDEZ

Italy’s Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest and most active volcano. It’s also a very popular destination for skiers from all over the world and, in fact, February happens to be the start of the peak ski season in Sicily.

During the winter months, an eruption on Mount Etna can provide one of the most unique and awe-inspiring images Mother Nature can provide: snow and lava meeting. Sure enough, Mount Etna erupted this week, and stunning images and footage poured onto the internet. Landscape shots with rivers of lava, flyovers from drones, and plenty more provided proof of Mount Etna’s unique place in our natural world.

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

A handful of skiers and snowboarders took it all to another level this week, though, and didn’t let a little lava stop them from making some runs. Admittedly, making turns down the snow-covered slopes of an active volcano while it’s actively spewing molten lava is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Still, how many people would A) think to do so and B) actually follow through on the idea?

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

Marco Bassot, for example, is a snowboarder and mountain biker who does some pretty extreme stuff. His social media pages are filled with wild moments, but even he said the opportunity to go snowboarding next to flowing lava made for “the most mind-blowing run ever.”

“This fracture started some days ago and created a huge, intense, and impressive lava flow for more than 1,000m,” he wrote on Thursday. “I’ve seen many things in my 40 years of life, but riding side by side of a flowing river of lava is one of the most special, impressive, and breathtaking experiences I’ve ever lived.”

This story first appeared on The Inertia.

In the last week and a half, we have done our best to present a list of the 10 best outdoor expeditions of 2024 among the hundreds we have covered at ExplorersWeb. We are aware we have probably failed at the task.

Setting a "best" among climbs, treks, polar expeditions, kayak adventures, and others, each of them unique, is difficult. We still publish the list every year, accepting that opinions will differ, as a way to congratulate those who've stepped out of the ordinary, inspired us to work harder, and excited us about our own future adventures.

Yet a list of 10 is so few. There are so many more we would have wanted to have on that list! The least we can do is to mention many more worthy projects that we couldn't include -- in chronological order, to avoid all signs of classification. It proves that adventure is far from over; there is still a lot left to do. We look forward to covering it in 2025.

Winter 2024

In January 2024, Jeff Mercier, Greg Boswell, and Hamish Frost completed several hard Scottish winter routes, following the philosophy of "the harder, the better."

January 31: Historic Dru-Droites-Jorasses Trilogy The winter feats started in the Alps, thanks to one of the prominent climbers of the year: Benjamin Vedrines of France. Together with good friend Leo Billon, he climbed the three big North Faces of the Alps -- the Drus, the Droites, and the Grandes Jorasses -- in winter, onsight, all free climbing in one continuous push without bivouacs on the wall, in just three days.

February 13. Two weeks later, Guillaume Pierrel -- somehow -- skied down the north face of the Dru.

February 19. Great news from Patagonia: ‘Riders on the Storm’ on Torres del Paine was finally free-climbed. After 18 days on the sheer face of the Central Tower, Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, Nico Favresse, Siebe Vanhee, and Drew Smith free-climbed the legendary route 33 years after a German team first opened it.

After the feat, O'Driscoll still didn't feel up to going home and returned to Torres del Paine and soloed the complete Skyline Traverse of the four Torres del Paine between February 22-25.

Spring 2024

May 17. Jim Morrison, Christina Lustenberger, and Chantel Astorga completed the first ski descent of the Great Trango Tower in Pakistan's Karakoram. The famous granite spire (6,286m) draws big wall climbers, not skiers. Yet this team managed to find a continuous line of snow, waited for the right conditions in early spring, and sent it. A month later, Lustenberg and Guillaume Pierrel joined forces for a scary ski descent on New Zealand's Aoraki/Mount Cook.

May 24. During the height of the 8,000m season, news came of a new route climbed alpine style on a Nepalese 7,000'er. Charles Dubouloz and Simon Welfringer opened a beautiful new line on 7,029m Hungchi in the Khumbu.

May 29. On Kangchenjunga, Bartek Ziemski of Poland made a complete ski descent after summiting without oxygen in difficult conditions. He teamed up with Oswald Pereira, who climbed on foot.

Summer 2024

July. During the summer, attention focused on K2, where alpine-style teams attempted new routes. Most of all, Kayuza Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima made an incredibly bold but ultimately fatal attempt on the West Face. In addition to climbing, paragliders Sebastian Kawa and Sebastian Lampart of Poland took off from Skardu and soared over K2 and Masherbrum.

Also in July, Micha Rinn and Christian Bickel made the first complete Skyline Traverse of all the summits in the Italian Dolomites.

July 28. Also impressive was Benjamin Vedrines and Jean-Yves Fredriksen's no-O2 summit of K2 and paragliding descent. Vedrines also set a mind-blowing speed record by climbing from Base Camp to summit in 11 hours. Liv Sansoz and Zeb Roche also flew down in a tandem paraglider.

Professional paraglider Chrigel Maurer and mountain guide Peter von Kanel, both from Switzerland, climbed all 82 of the 4,000m peaks in the Alps in 51 days. They became the first to link all 82 peaks by paraglider.

This summer, an international team composed of Masha Gordon, Oswaldo Freire, Jack Sturm, and Joshua Jarrin made three first ascents in 30 days in the Shimshal Valley in northern Pakistan.

August 7. In the Pamirs, Olga Lukashenko, Anastasia Kozlova, and Darya Serupova of Russia opened two new routes on the Ashat Wall in Kyrgyzstan's Gissaro-Alai.

August 10. Philip de-Beger, Lorenzo Heis, and Aleksi Mujirishvili made the first ascent of 6,497m Virgerab Sar in the Karakoram.

August 13. Liu Yang and Song Yuancheng made the first ascent of the fourth-highest unclimbed mountain in the world: 7,221m Karjiang I on the Tibet-Bhutan border.

August 17. Mike Keen pulled into Qaanaaq, North West Greenland, after completing the final leg of his 3,200km kayak along the Greenland coast.

Later in August, Zach Fritz and Taylor Rau paddled 4,400km from Fritz’s family cabin in Minnesota’s North Woods to Chantrey Inlet, Nunavut, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

Matteo Della Bordella, Symon Welfringer, Silvan Schupbach, and Alex Gammeter made the first ascent of Droneren, a remote 1,980m wall in East Greenland. But the climb was only part of the adventure. They spent 33 days in the Arctic, kayaked 450km, then climbed 35 pitches on a wall with difficulties up to 7b in pure trad style. They also had four encounters with polar bears.

In late summer, Matteo de Zaiacomo and Chiara Gusmeroli made the first ascent of 5,300m Sckem Braq, a technical granite tower in Pakistan's Nangma Valley.

September 7. Nicolas Roulx and Catherine Chagnon completed their mammoth 140-day journey across Canada from west to east. The duo cycled, canoed, sailed, and hiked the 6,900km.

September 14. Veteran badass climbers Mick Fowler, 68, and Victor Saunders, 74, made the first ascent of 6,258m Yawash Sar in Pakistan. They climbed a new route on the northwest face in their usual elegant, alpine style.

In October, Japanese teams made several notable ascents. One group from the Japanese Alpine Club made the first ascent of 6,524m Phungi near Manaslu. Another team from Himalaya Camp made the first ascent of 6,207m Sanctuary Peak in western Nepal.

A few weeks later, two other Japanese teams succeeded in Nepal. Akihiro Oishi, Hiroki Suzuki, and Suguru Takayanagi made the second ascent of the northeast face of 6,673m Pandra near Kangchenjunga. Also in the Kangchenjunga region, Hidesuke Taneishi and Hiroki Yamamoto made the first ascent of 6,652m Pholesobi peak via a 1,500m ED+ direct line on the north face.

Adam Bielecki of Poland and Louis Rousseau of Canada went to the Hunza Valley in Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. While they failed to climb their main goal (a first ascent of one of the area's 6,000'ers), they completed two first ascents of nearby unnamed peaks during the acclimatization phase.

Poor conditions prevented Mykyta Balabanov and Mykhailo Fomin of Ukraine from climbing a new route on Makalu. Looking for a Plan B, they moved to Ama Dablam and pioneered a new route up the lonely West Face.

BY JUSTIN MOCK

“Detained at [a] police station most of yesterday til 2 am. Out on bail (!!!!),” Tina Lewis messaged to me on December 6, 2024. “I’m too f$%&ing tired to explain right now,” she said.

I didn’t know what she was accused of and was a little worried. She confirmed that she was okay.

“This is surreal,” the messages and anger kept coming, that day and the next several.

It took Lewis six days to get her passport back. Her violation? Possessing a satellite GPS device without permission from Indian authorities.

A Canadian citizen, Lewis, aged 51, lives in Colorado and was the 2012 Leadville 100 Mile winner. An experienced adventurer, she’d been traveling alone through India for two months and documenting her trip on social media.

At first, she visited the Taj Mahal, proclaiming it was “the moment I’ve dreamed of for years! Another 7 Wonders of the World added to my list!” She then got off the beaten path and into the mountains of Northern India, and later posts were positive too. “Feeling like a princess at the opulent City Palace, Jaipur, Rajasthan,” she smiled on one post.

Trouble in Goa

Then she went to Goa, a coastal state in Western India. Everything was great there, too. She enjoyed the beaches, reggae vibes, and Portuguese influences. But while traveling between the cities of Goa and Kochi, she was detained at Goa Dabolim International Airport.

Lewis had a Garmin inReach Mini in her carry-on baggage.

The incident made the local news.

And a post on the local news channel’s social media received over 2,000 likes. The comments were largely in support of Lewis.

Garmin describes its product as “your go-to connection for maintaining off-the-grid contact. It’s our palm-sized satellite communicator for adventures where size and weight matter. Need assistance? Send interactive SOS alerts anytime, globally. No matter where you are, two-way messaging lets you connect to the ones who matter.”

Lewis explained, “I had the Garmin for camping and trekking solo. And to use when no reception to check in with family to let them know I’m safe. As a solo female traveler, I think it’s wise.”

But the safety device landed Lewis in trouble. Satellite phones are illegal in India, banned as part of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933. The Garmin inReach Mini and similar devices are commonly mistaken for satellite phones.

Several countries ban satphones

Whether for security concerns, including concerns that they can be tracked by military authorities, or the potential to interfere with government telecommunications, satellite phones are banned in some other countries too, like Cuba and North Korea. Iridium satellite phones, in particular, are not permitted in India and can land unwitting travelers in trouble.

Lewis isn’t the only one unaware of the law. Arrests appear to be a near-daily occurrence. A December 9 article shared that a Czech national was arrested at an airport for carrying a Garmin Edge 540 GPS. And on December 10, it was an American citizen with an actual satellite phone.

Lewis didn’t involve the Canadian embassy for fear that it would slow the process, and she didn’t actually go to jail. She benefited from a local connection that rushed a lawyer to her aid, in addition to the police-appointed lawyer.

“I was detained at the police station, being questioned and literally about to go the hospital for a medical exam before jail when my friend’s lawyer showed up,” she explained. “But I spent several full days in court.”

Thousands of dollars in fines and fees

She says she spent thousands in court fines and lawyer fees, and of course forfeited the Garmin device.

Having just gotten back her passport, Lewis reflected, “I’ve taken a few days to process and I don’t want this ruining my trip.”

But the six-day event left Lewis frightened, discouraged, and feeling violated. It’s a bad spot on an otherwise great trip and a genuine appreciation for India.

“This outdated law needs to be challenged at [a] higher court so other travelers do not experience what I, and others, have,” Lewis shared on social media.

In the meantime, perhaps an upside to Lewis’s situation can be education for those of us who are taking our adventures to new-to-us locations where the use of advanced communication tools like these is not yet legal. The best advice is to check your home government’s website for information and advisories about satellite device rules in the country you'll be visiting.

This article first appeared on iRunFar.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

When Sam Benastick left his home on October 17, he planned on camping in Redfern-Keily Park for 10 days. But after the 10 days were up, the 20-year-old camper hadn’t returned home, and his family began to worry. Now, after more than five weeks lost in a vast, rugged wilderness, he’s been found.

Redfern-Keily park is a stunningly beautiful place. Sitting in British Columbia's northern Rocky Mountains, it’s full of pretty alpine meadows, peaks, glaciers, and huge valley lakes.

It’s a tourist attraction of sorts, although it is remote. There’s no running water or shelters for camping, and grizzly and black bears roam through it. Since it’s in Northern British Columbia, temperatures can plummet quickly in winter months, and while Benastick was lost, nightly temperatures dropped to below -20˚C on some nights. Somehow, though, Benastick survived his harrowing ordeal.

Staggering along the road

According to reports, the hiker was found shivering and unsteady, walking on a service road. He had two walking sticks for support and had cut his sleeping bag so that he could wrap it around his legs for warmth.

“You know, the guy says he’s in rough shape,” said Mike Reid, the general manager of the Buffalo Inn in Pink Mountain, B.C, to the CBC. “But man, for 40 days out in that cold, he’s going to live.”

When Benastick was first reported missing, an all-out search was started. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent out canine units and search and rescue teams from all over British Columbia. He was last seen on a red Honda dirt bike at the trailhead of the Redfern Lake trail, but on October 28, after 3,500 hours of searching turned up nothing, the teams were pulled back. The case remained open, however, and Benastick’s family and friends never gave up hope.

Despite their efforts, searchers found no trace of Benastick until Tuesday, when workers who were grading the service roads spotted him.

“They’ve been on that road for a week. And he said four-wheelers [and] snowmobiles were going up and down that road,” Reid said. “This morning, they had just started driving, and they said, ‘The hell is that person doing walking on this road?’ And he had two sticks, one in each hand, and it was Sam.”

Nearly collapsed

His rescuers told authorities that after they called an ambulance for him, Benastick nearly collapsed. For Reid, who worked tirelessly to find the missing man, the case hit close to home.

“It’s amazing. I’ve got three kids myself, and for him to find his son, it’s just amazing,” Reid told CBC’s Radio West. Benastick’s father and mother stayed in Reid’s inn for over 20 days in October while looking for their son.

Benastick is currently recovering from his ordeal in a hospital in Fort Nelson.

RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said in an RCMP statement that finding Benastick alive was "the absolute best outcome."

Benastick told officers that he had been in at least three locations.

"Sam told police that he stayed in his car for a couple of days and then walked to a creek, where he camped out for 10-15 days," said the RCMP statement. "Then [he] moved down the valley and built a shelter in a dried-out creek bed. He then made his way to where he flagged down the two men and was taken to safety."

Said Mike Reid: "It's just amazing. I've got three kids and five grandkids, and I could just imagine what [his parents] were going through. But right now, they're gonna have the best Christmas."

Parts of this story first appeared on The Inertia.

BY JUAN HERNANDEZ

Ryan Borgwardt was reported missing on August 12 in Green Lake, Wisconsin. His wife was the last person to hear from him. The evening before, he texted her to say he was kayaking to shore.

When the 45-year-old father of three failed to return home by morning, she let local authorities know. A week later, police reported they had found his kayak capsized in the lake and a tackle box containing his wallet, keys, and driver’s license. They spent the next 54 days searching the lake with the help of the non-profit search organization, Bruce’s Legacy, without finding Borgwardt.

“Keith Cormican, [who leads] Bruce’s Legacy, sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images,”  Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said. “Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred.”

Nearly three months since Borgwardt’s disappearance, the Green Lake sheriff’s department still hasn’t found a body after searching every corner of the lake. Instead, they believe Borgwardt staged the entire thing and fled the country.

Shocking news

Sheriff Podoll held a press conference last week to lay out the investigation's findings, including the shocking news that Borgwardt may have faked the entire thing. A turning point in the investigation came in early October when they learned that Canadian border authorities had actually checked Borgwardt’s name the day after he’d gone missing. More evidence started to pile up after that major discovery.

For example, he erased everything on his laptop’s hard drive just after syncing all of the contents to the cloud on August 11. He’d also taken out a $375,000 life insurance policy months before the disappearance and transferred funds into a foreign bank. Authorities also say they’ve traced communication between Borgwardt and a woman in Uzbekistan.

What was a major search-and-rescue operation for a missing kayaker has turned into a criminal investigation with several departments, including the FBI. A press release from the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Department didn’t lay out specific charges that could be applied, but they are looking into any people who could have knowingly helped the father of three plan his disappearance.

“At this time, we believe that Ryan is alive and likely in Eastern Europe,” Sheriff Podell said.

This article originally appeared on The Inertia.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

Hvaldimir, a beluga whale that became an internet phenomenon for possibly being a Russian spy, has died. According to reports, a father and son in southern Norway found the whale’s body over the weekend.

Hvaldimir first came into the public eye when he appeared in 2019 near Ingoya, an island off of Norway. He was wearing a harness with a mount for a small camera at the time, and it was stamped with “Equipment St Petersburg.”

He was strangely comfortable around humans and responded to hand signals, which led to the presumption that someone had trained him. His name is a portmanteau of the word Hval, which means "whale" in Norwegian, and Vladimir, after the president of Russia.

When he first showed up, he routinely rubbed himself against boats in an apparent attempt to get the harness off. Eventually, a fisherman donned a survival suit, leapt into the chilly waters off Norway, and cut him free. The whale continued to interact with humans and vessels, playing fetch — he famously returned a cell phone and a GoPro on separate occasions — and asking for food. He even let people pet him.

A beacon of hope

“Hvaldimir was not just a beluga whale,” the Marine Mind NGO said on social media. “He was a beacon of hope, a symbol of connection, and a reminder of the deep bond between humans and the natural world.”

Although Russian officials have never responded to the allegations that Hvaldimir was trained to be a spy, Norway’s domestic intelligence agency had strong suspicions that he was, in fact, part of a research program to be one before he entered Norwegian waters.

As of this writing, there’s no clear answer to what caused his death.

“It’s absolutely horrible,” marine biologist Sebastian Strand, who worked with Marine Mind, told NRK (Norwegian public broadcasting). “He was apparently in good condition as of [Friday], so we just have to figure out what might have happened here.”

This story first appeared on The Inertia.

BY WILL BRENDZA

A string of dingo attacks at one of Australia’s most popular tourist and camping destinations has local politicians urging for greater caution. The Fraser Coast mayor now wants to enforce a ban on children under 12 camping outside of fenced-in areas on Fraser Island (renamed K’gari in 2023), a World Heritage Site sand island east of Brisbane. Fears are mounting that these attacks could turn deadly.

“This is getting to the stage where it is frightening, whether the next one will be a fatality or not,” Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour told ABC News Australia.

Already, just in 2024, there have been 16 “high-risk” dingo attacks at K’gari, according to the Australian Department of Environment, Science and Innovation. Nine of those involved children. The most recent attack left a four-year-old girl so badly mauled she had to be airlifted to a hospital. The wild dog grabbed the toddler by the chest, causing a puncture wound and numerous cuts, according to Department of Environment rangers at K’gari.

It’s already recommended that children camp in fenced-in areas. Mayor Seymour is now working with local authorities to turn that recommendation into an official ordinance.

“I just don’t think that it is an appropriate place for children to be, given the number of attacks, the changing nature of attacks, and the potential for a fatality here,” the mayor said.

Dingos want to eat your baby

K’gari has a population of only 152 residents but gets 400,000 and 500,000 visitors annually, according to a 2021 census. It is the largest sand island in the world. Unlike most sand islands, plant life thrives on K’gari.

Wildlife is abundant, too. There are 74 different species of reptiles on K’gari, 350 species of birds, and 25 to 50 species of mammals. The dingos on K’gari are one of the area’s most iconic animals. It’s believed they are the last species not yet cross-bred with dogs in Eastern Australia. As such, the dingos are protected by law, and dogs are not allowed at K’gari.

Typically, the dingos won’t bother people on K’gari. They usually hunt kangaroos, wallabies, feral pigs, wombats, and small mammals or scavenge for dead animals. Human attacks are relatively rare.

But they’ve become an increasing issue for K’gari tourists, especially those traveling with children. These wild dogs are known to target children because they pose less of a threat, according to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. There have only ever been a handful of child fatalities from dingo attacks. But Fraser Coast’s Mayor fears another fatality is imminent if something isn’t done to prevent it.

Lunged at, nipped, or bitten

Of the 16 high-risk interactions recorded so far in 2024, victims were lunged at, nipped, or bitten by dingos. The proposed ordinance would potentially prevent more dingo attacks at campgrounds. But Queensland Minister for the Environment Leanne Linard warned that people, and families in particular, should always be wary when visiting the World Heritage Site.

“The risk is not isolated to camping areas,” Linard told ABC News. “People must remain vigilant on the island at all times.”

This article first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

On the morning of August 18, a fisherman in Australia came home with a whale of a tale. Literally. He’s lucky to be alive after he was slapped in the face by a whale’s tail.

According to reports, he was on a boat with a friend off the coast of Tweed Heads when the extraordinarily rare event occurred.

“Just two guys having a morning fish,” said Scott Brown, one of the responders from the Queensland Ambulance Service on the scene, told ABC. “And then all of a sudden, a whale’s tail appeared, striking one in the head.”

As expected when one is hit in the face by the tail of a whale, the man was knocked unconscious. Neither the victim nor his fishing partner were aware that a whale was in the area until it surfaced and flipped its tail. It’s not uncommon for whales to interact with boats, but it is uncommon for such a direct interaction.

“We’ve had boats come in contact with whales before, but not actually a person sitting in a boat,” Brown continued. “You have a little bit of disbelief that it happened at first but respond nonetheless, and when we got there, that’s what we found had happened.”

Minor injuries

Luckily, the man, who is in his 30s, sustained only minor injuries. As a result of the knockout blow, however, he doesn’t remember the event. It’s unknown what kind of whale it was.

His friend called emergency services who responded to the scene with Volunteers Marine Rescue, water police, and paramedics. They were then taken back to shore and the victim was transported to Gold Coast University Hospital. He’s expected to make a full recovery, but he sure does have a good story to tell.

“Just be cautious that there are a lot of whales at this time of year in that area,” Brown warned after the rescue was over. “And today has shown us that anything can happen.”

This story first appeared on The Inertia.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

When the Titan submersible imploded on its way down to visit the wreck of the Titanic in June of 2023, it was a very public tragedy. The world waited in horror as the crew’s inevitable fate was revealed. Now the family of one of the explorers aboard has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the sub’s operator, OceanGate, and others. The suit claims that the crew went through “terror and mental anguish” and accused the defendants of gross negligence.

For those who may not remember the details, the Titan was on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, which sank 111 years ago, nearly 1,600 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Those onboard the Titan submersible paid upwards of $250,000 to attempt to dive to 3,800m for an up-close-and-personal look at the most famous shipwreck in the world.

Sealed inside

When the Titan failed to resurface at its scheduled time of 6 pm, the crew on the mothership alerted authorities, and the hunt was on. The Titan had four days of emergency air, which gave hopeful rescuers a timeline to work with. For the next 96 hours, international teams searched the vast area the sub went missing in, but weren’t able to find a thing. There were a series of curious knocking sounds that buoyed spirits temporarily, but those hopes were dashed when the clock ran out.

Mr. Titanic

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known also as Mr. Titanic, was one of the five people who died in the implosion. He’d already been down to the Titanic a record 37 times. According to reports, he was “regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck.”

“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit states. “Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”

Cheap video game controller

The Titan submersible was widely panned by those working the submersible field. It was built partly from carbon fiber and titanium, and was controlled by a cheap video game controller. The material the sub was made from, according to its critics, hadn’t been tested properly at the extreme depths that the Titanic lies in. OceanGate has since suspended all operations.

“The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull,” it reads. “The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”

The lawsuit was filed on August 6 in King County, Washington, and OceanGate is required to respond to the complaint within a few weeks.

Tony Buzbee, an attorney working for the plaintiffs, told the Associated Press that one of their goals, aside from monetary compensation, is to “get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen.”

“Decedent Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do,” the lawsuit states, “but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful.”

This story first appeared on The Inertia.

BY COOPER GEGAN

The severed leg of surfer Kai McKenzie washed up on shore in New South Wales, Australia, shortly after he was attacked by a shark Tuesday morning. After the 23-year-old was stabilized, a race against time began to see if the limb could be reattached.

The shark encounter occurred around 11 am Tuesday, when McKenzie was surfing at North Shore Beach near Port Macquarie.

“The man saw the shark approach him, he was able to fight it off, he was pretty courageous and able to turn around and catch a wave to shore,” NSW Ambulance Service acting duty operations officer Kirran Mowbray told ABC News.

Once McKenzie made it back to land, a passing retired police officer came to his aid, using a dog leash as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding until emergency services arrived.

Shortly afterward, the surfer's severed leg washed ashore, and locals put it on ice, local police confirmed to The Guardian. McKenzie and his leg were then taken to the hospital. When he arrived, doctors assessed whether the leg could be reattached, according to the BBC, but it is still unclear whether they succeeded. Emergency services said that McKenzie was in “serious but stable condition.”

A GoFundMe has been started to cover the surfer’s medical expenses and recovery. As of writing, over $77,000 has been raised.

This story first appeared in The Inertia.

BY COOPER GEGAN

Rogue waves were once thought to be the stuff of sailing legend, but they are all too real. Defined as a wave that is more than twice the height of the average waves around them, the massive, unpredictable beasts are not only dangerous but also more common than previously believed. However, a new tool is being developed to give sailors enough time to do something about it.

The tool was created by Balakumar Balachandran and Thomas Breunung, two researchers in the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Department of Mechanical Engineering. In a study published in Scientific Reports, the pair described how they trained a neural network to identify ocean waves that precede rogue waves.

This was done by feeding the network a dataset consisting of 14 million, 30-minute-long samples of sea surface elevation measurements from 172 buoys located near the shores of the continental U.S. and Pacific Islands.

The tool correctly predicted 73 percent of rogue waves five minutes before they happened. That sort of advanced warning could give sailors and workers on offshore structures valuable time to seek shelter, perform emergency shutdowns or evacuate crew.

To confirm their findings, the system was further tested with data from buoys not included in the original dataset. When the tool was still able to predict rogue waves with the new data, the researchers knew they were on to something.

“That told us that whatever relationship we came up with was fairly universal,” explained Balachandran.

Still misses one wave in four

Though the tool is not perfect (the network still misses one out of four waves), Breunung and Balukumar hope to further improve the system by incorporating physical quantities such as water depths, wind speeds, and buoy locations.

“While the success rates of our approach are encouraging, the neural network allows us to draw only limited conclusions about the fundamental physics of rogue wave events,” said Breunung in a UMD press release.

They also believe the significance of their findings could extend beyond just rogue waves.

“Rogue waves are one type of extreme event,” added Balachandran. “Our data-driven approach could be useful for understanding and predicting other extreme events associated with, for example, climate change.”

The original version of this story first appeared on The Inertia.

BY ESZTER HORANYI

On July 15, Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton established a co-ed supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado 14'ers. They summited all 58 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet in 12 days, 6 hours, and 43 minutes.

The duo is known for their many efforts in the Colorado mountains, including Sansone’s women’s supported FKT on the Nolan’s 14 route and Hamilton’s men’s supported FKT on the Colorado 14'ers, among other impressive efforts.

To date, this is the first co-ed supported effort for the Colorado 14'ers. For comparison, Hamilton’s men’s supported FKT is 9 days, 21 hours, and 51 minutes, and Danelle Ballengee has the women’s supported FKT in 14 days, 14 hours, and 49 minutes.

This co-ed supported FKT is also a feat of logistics, as the 58 peaks are scattered throughout the state and range from easy walk-ups to technical scrambling. There’s no set route for completing the peaks, but a person has to climb and descend at least 3,000 feet to the summit for it to count. There are then hundreds of miles of driving in between the peaks, ranging from good highways to difficult four-wheel-drive roads.

Sansone and Hamilton’s deep experience in Colorado allowed them to tag the summits as efficiently as possible, often using some of the more direct routes between summits to save time and elevation.

The pair started the effort on July 3 at 4 am local time, with the original goal of beating Hamilton’s 2015 men’s supported FKT. But issues plagued them from the start, and they soon fell behind their aggressive goal splits.

The day prior to the effort, the Durango-Silverton train, which they were using to reduce the approach distances to the four Chicago Basin 14'ers in the San Juan Mountains, was stopped by mudslides. Undeterred, they walked the extra miles instead of rescheduling. By the time they tagged the peaks and returned, the train was running again, and they could get a ride back to civilization.

Early problems

Storms, knee issues, rockfall, and various other issues slowed the pair down. By Day 3, they realized they wouldn’t be able to hit their target time.

“The whole thing in terms of our original speed estimates kind of fell apart at the end of Day 3," says Hamilton. "We actually had great weather, but then as we were doing this thing called the Gash Ridge from Blanca [Peak] to [Mount] Lindsey, it’s like you’re kind of down-climbing the stuff, and my memory is so bad. I had told [Sansone], oh, it’s just one hard down climb, and then it’s a piece of cake. Well, it wasn’t a piece of cake. It’s actually really hard. And then the next day, I think after being cold for several hours, our legs just never really came back.”

Sleep deprivation also took its toll, especially during the first half, which featured the more technical peaks.

Hardest peaks first

“It ends up being really front-loaded with all of the really hard ranges," said Hamilton. "And so by the time you’re on Day 4 or 5, you’re kind of brain-fried. You’re on no sleep. We’re very confident climbers, but on no sleep, you just kind of forget who you are in climbing and being comfortable with your climbing skills.”

To the pair, it felt like nearly anything that could go wrong went wrong. "It’s like, okay, what are we going to get hit with next?" said Hamilton. "It’s really hard to find joy while you’re doing it and enjoy it because you just keep getting slammed in the face with all of these obstacles.”

Both agree that it was their crew and community that kept them going. From having an off-highway vehicle driver who’d been up all of the 14'ers previously and was able to shuttle them up some of the four-wheel-drive approach roads much faster than a truck could, to Sansone’s sisters coming out to provide endless support and encouragement to a friend who was willing to run everyone’s errands so that the rest of the crew could focus on the effort, it was truly a team effort.

On the verge of quitting

Over the 12-plus days, the pair and their crew continued to climb peak after peak. Sansone says they wanted to quit several times.

“There was one time when we were on Mount Massive, and our videographer opened the door [to their van], and I looked at him straight in the camera, and I said, we’re done,” recalled Sansone.

Added Hamilton: "And so Riley [Hanlon] handed me the video camera, and he’s like, ‘Well, when you get to the point where you’re going to call it, just make a little video for me.’ And at that point, we just kept hiking, and we just never took that step where we couldn’t take one more.”

A few days after finishing the effort on Longs Peak, accompanied by many friends, the couple says they are still far from processing the entire effort.

Sansone says, “I think the biggest takeaway is that we didn’t quit...No matter how hard it gets, you don’t have to quit.”

 

This article first appeared on iRunFar.

BY WILL BRENDZA

Starlink released its latest, smallest, and most portable internet terminal yet in U.S. markets this week, the Starlink Mini. Now, backpackers, river rats, world travelers, and anyone else who lives out of a pack can access Wi-Fi anywhere. The satellite internet provider also released a new internet plan with the Mini called Roam. Both are add-ons for existing Residential plans.

The portable dish measures 11.75 x 10.2 x 1.45 in. — slightly larger than a standard laptop. And at just over 2.5 pounds, it weighs about as much as one.

Starlink described the Mini as a “compact, portable kit that can easily fit in a backpack, designed to provide high-speed, low-latency internet on the go.”

Starlink Mini Roam: Wi-Fi where it’s never gone before

At $600, the Mini is $100 more than Starlink’s Residential units. Adding the Mini Roam service to an existing Residential plan will cost an additional $30 per month (on top of the $160 per month Residential plan).

Users get 50 GB of data monthly with the Roam plan and can purchase additional data for $1 per GB. You can’t get the Mini or Roam plan without an existing Residential plan — at least, not yet.

With the purchase of a Mini, customers get the terminal, a kickstand, gen-3 router, Starlink cable, AC cable, and power supply unit. According to the website, billing for the Roam service is paid in one-month increments and can be canceled at any time.

It’s important to note that the Mini has no internal power, so you’ll need a power source. In a true backpacking scenario, the Mini with a power bank will only get you limited access to the internet.

According to The Verge, “the Mini kit consumes an average of just 20-40W…that means you can power the Mini dish for two to three hours from something like an Anker Prime 27,650mAh (99.54Wh) power bank, or a little over an hour with smaller 10,000mAh (40Wh) portable batteries you might already have laying about.”

According to Starlink, the Mini uses even less power than other Starlink terminals but still delivers over 100Mbps internet speeds. However, Starlink specifies that the Roam plan only provides this service “on land,” meaning it is not available for ocean use.

The Mini Roam setup instructions on the webpage only include two steps: Plug it in; Point at sky.

“I just set it up right now and am writing this post through space,” Starlink founder Elon Musk posted to X on June 16. “Took less than 5 mins. Easily carried in a backpack. This product will change the world.”

Regional rollout

While the Starlink Mini and Roam plan is new in the U.S., it is not new globally. Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama have all had access to this device and Mini Service or Mobile-Regional Service plans since earlier in 2024.

Starlink first became available in 2019 and has grown to become a global leader in providing internet to rural areas. Today, the brand claims to have over 3 million customers worldwide. It recently made headlines for introducing the internet to uncontacted tribes in the Amazon.

This article first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY JOE CARBERRY

Tamayo Perry was a dominant force at Pipeline and its South Pacific cousin, Teahupo’o. He was a dedicated public servant guarding Hawaii’s waters for locals and tourists alike. He even had a small acting role in Pirates of the Caribbean, among other movies. And according to friends, he did it all humbly. That beautiful life came to a tragic end on Oahu’s east side this weekend when Perry died in a shark attack.

Perry was surfing near Laie when county and Honolulu police and fire crews responded to a shark attack incident. Perry was at a surf spot known as Goat Island when an emergency call reported someone injured in the water. Rescuers used a Jet Ski to recover Perry, who was pronounced dead at the scene. A spokesperson told Hawaii News Now that the surfer might have suffered multiple bites and that it was most likely a tiger shark.

The attack was reportedly gruesome in nature.

Stuff of legend

His death did not take away from the life Perry lived. He was well-loved and had worked for Honolulu Ocean Safety as a North Shore lifeguard since 2016. The department was obviously devastated by the loss of one of its own.

“Tamayo Perry was a lifeguard loved by all, well-known on the North Shore, a professional surfer known worldwide,” Acting Ocean Safety Chief Kurt Lager said in a news conference on Sunday. ”Tamayo’s personality was infectious, and as much as people loved him, he loved everyone else more.”

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

Perry was a skilled barrel rider. His prowess for finding himself deep in the tube became the stuff of legend in the early 2000s. He also ran a surf school with his wife Emilia, Oahu Surfing Experience.

The surf world mourned the death of Perry, whose good nature endeared him to so many. “[Just heard the] news of the passing of my great mate, neighbor, and brother, Tamayo Perry,” wrote Barton Lynch. “He lives less than 50 meters from us. We see each other nearly every day and our whole family is devastated by the news and finding it hard to believe. It was only a couple of weeks ago that Lion and I surfed the very spot with Tamayo and @emiliaperry and our hearts are broken for her, his family, and our entire community...We will all miss his joyful, grateful, and loving energy...”

Tamayo Perry was 49 years old.

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

The original version of this story appeared in The Inertia.

BY RACHELLE SCHRUTE

A recent social media trend highlighting that women will almost always choose running into a bear over running into a man in the woods hits home for me. I’ve been attacked by both.

I began writing this story last year, and for a few logistical reasons, it sat. I should say I began writing this story years ago. It’s changed as time has gone on, but it’s a story that’s unfortunately been mine for too long. All that is to say, this feeling has been around well before some social media trend.

No bear has ever had bad intentions for me. A bear has never feigned kindness or faked friendship in order to catch me off guard. There has never been a bear who’s planned and plotted to injure me for fun. I’ve never been left bloodied and crying in the church parking lot by a bear. My self-worth has never been destroyed by a bear. My body has never been violently violated for the sick enjoyment of a bear.

I cannot say the same for man.

The bear

“Dad. I got attacked by a bear.”

It’s probably not a call my dad ever expected, and it’s a call I never expected to make. The short story is this:

I was solo elk hunting in an area known to have black bears. I’ve run into black bears plenty and have never had much of an issue with them. They go their way. I go mine.

This time, I saw what I thought was a little ol’ Black Angus cow grazing in a meadow on public land. As I got closer, that cow lifted its head over the waist-high grass and looked at me as I passed within 30 yards. That cow was not a small cow — it was a huge bear.

I stopped, made myself known, and decided, obviously, to change path. Oddly, the bear lowered its head and kept munching on whatever it was working on, paying little attention to me.

What felt like maybe 20 minutes later, I was moving along a game trail that bottlenecks on a fairly steep hillside when I heard a ruckus to my right. Whatever was making the noise was moving ahead of me through the gnarliest brush. Then, I saw movement behind two forked pines at the smallest point in the bottleneck of the trail.

My first thought was, “That’s either a moo-cow or an elk-cow.”

Not a cow at all

I had an elk shed in one hand that I’d picked up a few minutes earlier and was carrying my bow over my neck with the other. As I contemplated slowly setting the shed down so I could grab my bow and get ready to take a shot, the bear was already bounding toward me.

With bear spray on my pack belt and both hands full, I instinctively swung the antler and made contact with the bear’s head. I fell hard to the left; he recoiled and bounded down off the trail to the right.

This wasn’t some false charge. This wasn’t just a curious bear. It was a full-blown stalk and attack.

I realized quickly that the fastest way out of the woods was to follow the exact path that the bear had taken to get himself out of the situation. With the most violent shakes I can’t possibly describe, I followed his lead toward the road.

A video that hurts to watch

I pulled my phone out and began recording. I felt I owed it to my children to say some things in the event the bear turned back. We’d often joked about the possibility of me being eaten by a bear and how much street cred that would earn them. I mean, it’s pretty cool to tell someone that your mom got eaten by a bear, right?

I also started recording to keep myself making noise. Honestly, I also just needed to talk to someone. I’d never felt more alone. All I had was a phone, no cell service, and an inReach with unanswered messages because everyone I knew was also out hunting. I felt so stupid, like one of those dramatic teenage girls recording themselves crying…yet there I was, crying into my phone.

It took almost two hours to get back to my rig and drive to cellphone service to call my dad.

The darkest reality of this is that I never called my dad when I was attacked by men. Somehow, there’s shame attached to being a victim of a man. There’s questioning, blame, and disbelief. We’re taught as women that opening our mouths about these assaults will just open up a can of worms that isn’t worth it, so we often just shove it down into our gut and hold it in silence. It’s easier.

And in the end, no one will ask me what I was wearing to provoke the bear.

The biggest irony is that I’m far more to blame for the bear assault than I’ve ever been to blame for the assaults by men.

Why I’d still choose the bear that tried to eat me

This story isn’t about that bear, or any bear for that matter. I have multiple friends who have been attacked by bears, many far more violently than my experience. A friend of mine “heard her own skull crack” in the mouth of a bear, fought it off with the help of bear spray, and held her scalp to her head while she hiked herself out. I had the honor of holding that bear’s skull in my hands.

The only physical injuries I sustained were some decent bruises and scrapes from the impact of hitting the ground and a whole lot of scratches from busting out through hawthorn bushes to get the hell out of the woods. I lucked out. My story is certainly not unique, nor is it even badass, as compared to the experiences of the people in my circle.

There’s a picture somewhere of my grandmother swinging a broom at a bear that was getting into her flowers. I spent some time wilderness guiding, where a good day meant I got people into places where they could watch grizzlies graze and wolves tussle with each other. Bears are just part of our life.

I’ve had some really sketchy interactions with grizzlies, including bluff charges and, pending your definition of a charge (and how much interaction I choose to have with Montana Fish and Wildlife officials), some that were far more than bluff. I’m lucky that I’m still here to write about them. Almost all of those interactions were entirely my fault, where I put myself in the wrong situation and caught a bear off-guard.

Predators on two legs

That said, my scariest moments in the wild don’t compare to the moments I’ve faced human predators. That fact lives on the tip of my tongue whenever someone questions why I go into the woods alone. I often wonder how many women hunters are asked the same. I wonder how many have gotten the recommendation to “go with one of the guys.”

"What about bears or wolves? You really don’t take a guy with you? No husband, no boyfriend, father, nothin’?"

These concerns all come from a place of caring. I know this, and I do appreciate it. It’s just that as I’ve gotten older, I come to understand that the concerns might be misplaced.

The worst thing a bear or mountain lion can do is hurt my body or take my life

I don’t want to downplay that. I absolutely get spooked in the wilderness. I’ve hiked out after dark at times, and every sound was something trying to eat me. Once you get in that frame of mind, it’s a dark place to be.

However, there is no twig snap in the dark, no scurry through the brush, no low rumbling growl, or charging bear that compares to:

“What’s a little gal like you doing out here all alone?”

The social media monster

I began stewing on this topic several years ago. To be honest, I was pushed to write about it because of interactions I’ve been put in via social media. It started relatively innocently with the random guy joking that he’d like to hunt with me someday and really teach me something. Then, it would be the compliments that edged on inappropriate. And finally, maybe around 2016, the negative interactions began to escalate.

I’ve had to file restraining orders as recently as a few months ago. In the most recent incident, I hadn’t responded to a kind message that ended up buried in my inbox. The man who sent it took it as such an affront that he very credibly threatened to kill me and everyone I knew.

I had a man in his late 50s travel across the country by plane and then rent a car to drive several hours to my rural office. He walked in with flowers, excited to meet me and even more excited to discuss the adventure he’d planned for us.

I had never spoken to this man. Yet, here he was, standing in front of me alone in my office with no one else around. When the police arrived, he was visibly confused about why I wasn’t flattered. He knew everything about me. He’d gone through so much to come see me and really believed we were meant to be together.

Opening your life up to the public can have very real-world consequences.

Me, too

I’ve occasionally shared social media stories that highlight these sorts of interactions, along with the incessant pile of harassment that finds its way to my inbox. After mentioning how my fear of most men ranks far higher than my fear of bears, I was bombarded with messages. Many of those somehow both downplayed and echoed my sentiment. It’s ironic that this little hobby of mine suddenly became such a popular trend, particularly with women who’ve never even seen a bear.

So many men claimed that they, too, felt more scared in an alleyway than in the forest. They’d rather be in the woods than in the city. They felt safer out there.

“Oh, I know, sweetheart. The meth heads in my neighborhood terrify me, too. I can’t imagine being a pretty girl like you. I’d rather be camping.”

This cognitive dissonance is so loud.

You missed the point, bud. You’ve taken the threat I face every day and not only made it about you but misdirected it to blame drugs or thugs or whatever demographic you find sub-par. What you don’t realize is that most assailants are “nice guys” just like you.

Oddly enough, I’m already preparing for the throngs of men who will call this story or any of my accounts “fake,” and that is just part of the deal.

Not all men

This is about to get REAL personal. Consider this your trigger warning.

I’ve never been raped by a methhead, assaulted by someone on crack, manhandled by a homeless man, or accosted by a “thug.” I’m not saying that those things don’t happen to people every day. I know they do, and my heart breaks for them.

What I am saying is that all of those things have happened to me.

However, the perpetrators were not the people we’ve been taught to fear. They came in the form of a high school basketball player, a respected pastor, a community leader, and a U.S. soldier, among others. Every one of them would be someone the local paper would gloat about; every one of them is still respected in their communities. These were people I was taught to trust.

There’s a habit of passing the buck to those who are deemed “less savory” in the eyes of society. I understand that not all experiences are universal, but mine came from those on the proverbial societal honor roll.

Would I have been safer in the woods with them? I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have been.

Whenever I read the phrase “not all men,” I immediately think, “not all bears.” I haven’t been attacked by most of the bears I’ve come into contact with. That doesn’t mean I’d want to be locked in a cage with one. See? See how that works?

To be clear, I am not scared of men. Most of the people in my life happen to be men. The safest I’ve ever felt is in the company of well-chosen men. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that the most scared, most threatened, and most injured I’ve ever been has also been at the hands of men.

I find deep irony in the suggestion that I must add one to my guest list in order to be safe. Can you imagine someone suggesting to a man that they should take a woman along on a hunt, you know, for safety? It seems ludicrous in our society, but statistically, it would be more effective.

How my experiences have shaped who I am

There isn’t enough time in the day to tell you all my stories involving the predators in boots. Being a woman in the outdoors puts you in the minority in general. Being a woman in the hunting and fishing space, even more so. I am often the only woman at camp, the only woman on press trips, and the only woman in the room.

It’s not something I even think twice about, and I’ve come to see it as an honor. I am absolutely comfortable in those settings with those people. They are my people, gender not considered.

But, I’ve had interactions in the wild that those people will likely never experience, and that changes a person. Sometimes, I think it takes a mean old bear to put threats into perspective.

Cementing my stance

In the months since my face-to-face, or perhaps, antler-to-face interaction with that bear, I’ve had a lot of time to think about the dangers that I face unknowingly and the dangers that I put myself in. I’ve come to some striking conclusions.

I would rather face that bear again than face the man who was waiting for me by my truck in the middle of nowhere, with no cellphone service, and no one else around.

I would rather face that bear again than have to go back to the day that I had to cut down a gate that had been wire-tied shut by two men who didn’t want me to be able to leave without them being able to catch up. Their intentions were quite clear.

I would rather face that bear again than have to go back to the church where I was taught more than any eight-year-old girl should ever have to know.

In every situation, in every location, in every circumstance: I choose the bear.

Is there a solution?

Perhaps the fact that so much awareness has already been brought to violence against women, with no apparent resolution, says something.

I come from a biology background. Whenever I try to rationalize anything, I always revert to the fact that the animal instincts of mammals don’t leave the females in a good spot. I hope that we are in a place in evolutionary history where the males of our species are collectively capable of higher orders of thinking. However, it seems the statistics show that biological drives often outweigh morals.

Call me a pessimist, but I prefer to think of it as realism. I am smaller, slower, and physically weaker than most men. Because of that, they will always be a threat.

What does it all mean?

This story does not have a moral, solution, or happy ending. It’s just a story.

Maybe this is a nod to the women out there who feel the same. Perhaps it’s just a social commentary on how women are taught, from such a young age, that we need men in close proximity for us to be safe. That sentiment is especially strong when it comes to venturing off the beaten path.

In no way is this some testimony about how scared I am of men. Most of my favorite humans have that sex listed on their driver’s license. Most of my social circle consists of men I trust with my life.

However, statistically, logistically, realistically, and from so many very personal experiences, when faced with the choice of an unknown bear in the woods or an unknown man:

I will always choose the bear.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

It’s 2024, and sex positivity has never been higher. Just ask a handful of safari goers in South Africa, who recently witnessed a purr-dy intimate display between two frisky felines.

As tourists watched from inside their caged vehicle, the lions clambered aboard the roof and became the so-called beast with two backs. TMZ embedded a video of the brief encounter.

The vehicle briefly shook as the big cats went at it. The male roared in passion and nibbled the lioness's ear as the onlookers chuckled.

The "mane" event was soon over.

BY RACHELLE SCHRUTE

Few things get foragers excited like morel mushroom season. Few mushrooms get culinary mycophiles more giddy, and for good reason. Morels are delicious. Because this nearly-impossible-to-grow mushroom isn’t available at your local market, it makes the allure of the morel even more enticing.

As a lay mycologist myself, I get absolutely elated when the leaves start to bud on the cottonwood trees. It’s the sign that spring is here. For me, it’s the sign to head for the hills and start giving in to my fungi-gathering habit.

I’ve compiled some info, tips, and tricks, to get you into the field foraging your very own culinary delights.

DISCLAIMER: Foraging edible plants and fungi can be a dangerous endeavor. Before you consume any foraged food, be sure you have correctly identified it. If you aren’t sure, don’t eat it. You can likely find experts in your area to help you correctly identify your find. Mistakes can cost you your life.

What’s the hype with morels?

Morel mushrooms are one of the most sought-after varieties in the world. Depending on your location and the time of year, they can demand up to $50 per pound. The reason? They are absolutely delicious and incredibly difficult to cultivate. This means if you want to get your hands on the culinary delight of morels, you’re either going to have to fork over some serious cash or lace up your hiking boots.

A culinary marvel

Morel mushrooms have an almost meaty texture, making them a wonderful meat substitute in cooking. Unlike other mushrooms, morels do not have the slimy texture often associated with edible fungi. The flavor of the morel itself is almost nutty but light and not overpowering.

Morels are what I like to refer to as a gateway mushroom for people not partial to the flavor or texture of mushrooms. They can turn anti-mushroom folks into mycophiles in short order.

During morel season, I use morels for almost every meal. It’s hard to find a meal that isn’t made exponentially better with the addition of morels. From breakfast omelets to an evening of fine dining, the morel mushroom is the jack of all trades and…well…the master of them, too.

Types of morel mushrooms

There are currently 18 known different species of morel in North America, though most people identify them by color. Black, white, and yellow are the most common, but green and gray are also identifiers some foragers use.

Fortunately, all morels are edible (if cooked thoroughly).

Identifying morels

Mushrooms have a dark side, and if you decide to start foraging, you should make sure you are well-versed in identifying your target. There are so many poisonous mushrooms on the landscape, and one slip-up can be devastating.

The effects of eating poisonous mushrooms vary depending on the type and amount consumed. But, you can expect anything from minor gastrointestinal upset to extreme diarrhea, hallucinations, and even death.

NOT morels

Morels have a few lookalikes. However, they are quite simple to tell apart if you know your morels. Most false morels have more of a wrinkled cap and feature more of a solid or semi-solid stem. This is unlike the morel’s pitted cap and completely hollow stem and body. You may read that some false morels are edible if prepared properly, but to me, it simply isn’t worth the risk.

False morel red flags

• Not completely hollow, fleshy interior
• Wrinkled, brain-like cap, not pitted
• Cap disconnected from stem or only connected at the top of the stem
• More red, purple, brown colored
• Irregular, “smooshed” shape

Morel identification

Aside from appearances, true morels have a telltale hollowness typically lacking in their imposters. If you slice a morel from top to bottom, or if you take a cross-section, you’ll find that morels have a hollow interior from the top of their cap down to their stem.

Instead of the brain-like wrinkled texture of most false morels, true morels have deep, defined pits (which are amazing for soaking up butter). Morels also tend to have a peak, growing toward a relative point. False morels often have a more squished, irregular growth.

Morel green flags

• Hollow-bodied from stem to cap
• Deeply pitted cap, not wrinkled
• Fully connected stem and cap (in most cases)
• Colors ranging from black, gray, tan, yellow, and whitish
• Pointed, peaked growth

How to find morels

Let’s look at the groundwork needed to find the morels you crave. From tools needed to locations, time of year, tips, and tricks, we can help you embark on your mushroom foraging journey.

Tools needed

In reality, you don’t need any tools to forage for mushrooms. You can easily pop them out of the ground and toss them in a sack. However, morels are fragile, and harvesting them properly may lead to bulkier harvest in the future (or so they say). If you get serious about foraging for mushrooms, two simple tools will be an asset.

Mushroom knife: There are knives made specifically for harvesting mushrooms. They tend to have a curved blade that allows you to hook the stem just above the soil. This leaves a bit of “stem stubble” and doesn’t disrupt the mycelium below. Some, like the Opinel No. 08 Mushroom Knife, have a brush on the handle end for removing the bits of debris.

Mushroom bag: A vented/mesh mushroom bag can help keep your mushrooms fresh and protected. Morels are delicate. Because of their hollow body, they are very easy to crush and break. The stems are particularly crumbly and prone to breaking. Reusable produce bags also make great mushroom-collecting vessels. In reality, a plastic grocery bag will do the trick.

You can also save time and money by picking up this All-in-One Mushroom Foraging Kit, pictured above.

When to look

Morels have a very distinct and very short season. Spring is your time. The old rule of thumb is to start poking about as soon as the deciduous trees in your area have leaves that are just popping. The months where most morels will be prevalent in the U.S. are March, April, May, and June. Elevation also plays a huge part in when those mushrooms will pop.

Fortunately, you can find all sorts of resources online for your specific area, including the Morel Mushroom Sightings Map, which lays out where and when people spot the first morels of the season. You’ll find the first sightings tend to be the coasts, then the low-elevation central parts of the U.S., and finally up through the mountain ranges.

Where to find morels

If you’ve reached the time frame when morels should be popping up in your area, there are some distinct locations and signs that morels might be hiding in your vicinity. This should all be taken with a grain of salt, though. I’ve found morels next to the parking lot of rest stops. They are mysterious and finicky and, really, can pop up where you least expect it and not where you’d most.

Moisture

Like most fungi, morels prefer some moisture. However, they tend to prefer it drier than most. Think of the shady areas under trees that aren’t wet but have a bit of residual moisture from being shaded all day. You’ll find more morels there than you will on the river bank or near standing water.

Trees

Trees really are your mark. Oak, elm, ash, and aspen trees are the big targets for morel foragers, though they can coexist at the base of several other species. Because morels and trees share a mycorrhizal relationship, the mushrooms are almost always found in wooded areas. Mushrooms increase the moisture provided to the roots of the trees, while the trees provide nutrients like sugars for the morels.

Fire

Morels love a burn area. “Burn morels” are the mushrooms that pop up after a fire. These morels tend to be hardier than the rest of the morel family and are spurred to fruit in response to heat.

The mycelium of a burn morel attaches itself specifically to conifer trees and sits dormant until a fire comes through. Once the fire has scorched the earth and cooled, burn morels are known to pop up in unbelievable numbers and will for several seasons after the burn.

Preparing morels

The most important factor for consuming the morels you forage is to cook them thoroughly. There have been a few deaths associated with undercooked morel mushrooms, though the actual mechanism of the illnesses that caused the deaths isn’t well understood. The takeaway is this: COOK YOUR MOREL MUSHROOMS.

Because of the areas these fungi grow in, they often have soil and debris on them. Instead of washing, it’s recommended you use a soft brush, like the one included on a mushroom knife, to brush away any extras you bring home with you.

You can then sauté them in butter, use them as topping on pizza, add them to your morning omelet, toss them into spaghetti sauces, or, my personal favorite, use them to make a morel cream sauce and dump that on everything.

If you’re fortunate to harvest too many to eat like I am, you can dry them and rehydrate them for use throughout the year. I often end up drying a lot of morels, though they are so much better fresh. I slice mine in half to ensure a thorough drying and pop them into my dehydrator. They’ll keep quite some time and are wonderful to add to meals when the winters grow long.

Now, go forth, forage, be careful, and eat your way through spring.

This story first appeared on GearJunkie.

BY BRIAN SOUSA

“Waves taught me spirituality as opposed to religion.” - Matt George

“…Researchers finding that water is a key ingredient – if not the key ingredient – in experiences people often call holy…” - Jaimal Yogis

You may be devout, agnostic, atheist, or somewhere in between. Regardless, if you surf, I bet you’ve experienced it: When out in the deep blue, your worries are replaced by a feeling of profound insignificance and an intangible sense of connection.

As the percentage of adults in the U.S. who dig organized religion declines, a survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 64 percent of Americans consider themselves spiritual. The survey defined spirituality as “a relation to the supernatural, looking “inward into the depths of the self,” or a sense of connection “with other humans, creatures, and nature.”

As our search for spirituality intensifies, the number of surfers in the U.S. rises, hitting almost four million in 2023. Is there a relation between our quest for enlightenment and our search for swells? Here are a few ways in which surfing and spirituality ride together.

Synagogue of style

Our best surfing occurs when we enter a flow state and focus only on the immediacy of the impending swell. Board beneath us. Bottom turn. Glide along the edge of the frame. The best surfers achieve a sense of near-holy presence when connecting with the power of a wave: this becomes their unique style.

Bron Taylor, professor of religion, nature, and environmental ethics at the University of Florida, suggests that there is “…a religion-resembling-dimension to the practice of surfing. People get up at monastic hours before the sun comes up,” for the “meditative dimension” [of] riding waves.

Of course, when we’re out in the surf, our worries – marooned on dry land – can still creep in. As such, surfing mimics meditation and the constant struggle to empty our minds of thoughts.

Temple of tube rides

Surfers know that the cycle of the breakers is unceasing, and they are also aware that waves are an ephemeral energy source. To Taylor, who grew up surfing in California, waves are “tremendous, energetic systems” derived “from the big bang, still rolling through the universe.”

To surf is an attempt to extend the life of each wave before it breaks into an apology of thunder and foam. At the end of the wave’s life, the surfer simply paddles out and strokes into another. If this never-ending act of epiphany, destruction, and renewal is not spiritual, I’m not sure what is.

Faith in flow

In The Surfer’s Secret to Happiness, the late Ellis Avery describes watching the surfers at Australia’s Bondi Beach while coping with a string of health setbacks. Avery noticed that the time the surfers actually spent riding waves “…was minimal compared with the time they spent bobbing around…even the really good surfers spend far more time off the board than on it.”

Waiting on waves teaches us perseverance and patience. Taylor also singles out the idea that most time in the water is spent paddling, with “human civilization behind you, and out in front of you, a great wilderness.”

Recently, I was in the pocket of a long, glassy right when a random boil of chop tossed me head over heels. We can’t predict what any one wave will do. When challenged by our aquatic wilderness, surfers must dive deep, relax, and cede control to the sea.

Fellowship of fear

Many people turn to prayer for comfort when inexplicably terrible events occur. Fear is also a significant component of surfing. Big wave surfers, for example, harness the power of panic and then use it like gasoline to fuel their soaring feats.

Even when the waves are smaller, sting rays, sharks and rogue waves lurk within each set, and surfers must balance their fears of unexpected threats. This requires an open, accepting mindset, similar to being in tune with some sort of higher power.

Communion with cetaceans

We face our own insignificance when a pod of dolphins appears, hungry pelicans swoop, or the sun sinks like orange fire into the horizon. Immersion in nature returns us to our origins: the people who roamed the earth thousands of years before us, the creatures that dove under the breakers just as we do.

Taylor, who refers to surfing as a “form of nature spirituality,” says that surfers’ constant exposure to the sea’s foreign landscape and to marine mammals forces them to think deeply about their role in the world. When surfers realize “…that these creatures have their own intelligences, ways of life, curiosities, playfulness; it can get you thinking metaphysically: where do these waves come from, how do they fit in with the energies of the universe?”

One moment from my early 20s remains etched in my memory. Alone on the empty shore where I grew up, I bodysurfed for hours at dusk. Afterward, as I treaded water, I watched years of memories play out on the beach as if I’d tuned into an invisible movie screen. Under the bright glow of the emerging stars, I felt wholly irrelevant yet interminably linked to everything.

Holy hyperbole

This all might seem more exaggerated and dramatic than the WSL scoring disputes. Sometimes conflict plagues the crowded lineup, egos explode, and as surfers, spirituality is the furthest thing from our minds.

However, there exists a sublime connection between mysticism and macking waves, between crafting a spiritual core and carving a sick turn…at least in my humble estimation.

This story first appeared on The Inertia.

American ultrarunner Camille Herron has set another world record.

This time, Herron ran 560.33 miles (901.8km) to set a new women’s six-day world record at the 2024 lululemon FURTHER event in La Quinta, California.

The event ran March 6-12 to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8. New Zealand’s Sandra Barwick set the previous record of 549.063 miles in Australia in 1990, a record that’s stood for 34 years.

Herron broke that record by more than 11 miles and also achieved at least 12 interim world records and milestones along the way. Her effort comes out to an average pace of at least 15:22 per mile over the entire six days. This includes hours of stopped time, which Herron used for sleeping, resting, eating, drinking, and more.

The race was held on a 2.55-mile loop made up of largely dirt. Herron ran 220 laps.

Here are the records, world bests, and other milestones that Herron hit en route. This was Herron’s approximate record progression through the six days:

• 48-hour USATF American road record – 247.7 miles (Her IAU world record and USATF American track record still stand at 270.5 miles from her 2023 effort at the time-based event.)
• 300 miles – 59:54:58 (hours:minutes:seconds)
• 500 kilometers – 62:50:45
• 3 days – 342 miles
• 600 kilometers – 81:23:38
• 400 miles – 88:34:26
• 4 days – 429.8 miles
• 700 kilometers – 98:33:59
• 800 kilometers – 117:44:55
• 500 miles – 118:19:17
• 5 days – 501.7 miles
• 900 kilometers – 142:40:58
• 6-day IAU world best performance benchmark – at least 560 miles

A big hat tip to the record-tracking and record-visualizing of the folks in the Running Through Time Facebook group, who closely followed this event and Herron’s splits and shared them in a public forum.

Uniquely, the ultrarunning record marks reached during this event are managed by different entities, a combination of governing bodies and nonprofits.

The 48-hour mark is recognized as a world record by the governing body International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and, in the U.S., an American record for this time-based event is managed by the governing body USA Track and Field (USATF), divided into track and road surfaces.

The six-day mark is considered by the IAU as a world-best performance. All the other records listed above are tracked by the nonprofit Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners (GOMU).

This story was first published on iRunFar.

BY STUART AINSWORTH AND CAMILLE ABADA

If you're bitten by a venomous snake, the medicine you need is antivenom. Unfortunately, antivenoms are species specific, meaning you need to have the right antivenom for the snake that bit you. Most of the time, people have no idea what species of snake has bitten them. And for some snakes, antivenoms are simply not available.

New research my colleagues and I conducted provides a significant step forward in enabling the development of an antivenom that will neutralize the effects of venom from any venomous snake: a so-called "universal antivenom."

In our paper, published in Science Translational Medicine, we describe the discovery and development of a laboratory-made antibody that can neutralize a neurotoxin (a toxin that acts on the nervous system) found in the venom of many types of snake around the world.

Most victims are children and farmers

Venomous snakes kill as many as 138,000 people each year, with many more survivors suffering from life-changing injuries and mental trauma. Children and farmers make up the bulk of the victims.

The active ingredients in antivenoms are anti-toxin antibodies. They are made by injecting horses with small quantities of snake venom and harvesting the antibodies. This method of making antivenom has remained the same for over a century –- and it has substantial drawbacks.

In addition to antivenoms being species specific, they are also not very potent, so you need lots of antivenom to neutralize the venom from a bite.

Also, because antivenoms are made in horses, you are highly likely to experience severe side-effects when administered, as your body's immune system will detect and react to the foreign horse antibodies circulating in your bloodstream.

Antibodies that are made in the laboratory using genetically modified cells are routinely used in humans to treat cancers and immune disorders. A long-held hope is that the technology used to produce these antibodies can be used to make antivenom and eventually replace traditional antivenoms, thereby solving many of the issues current antivenoms face.

The antibodies in lab-made antivenoms could be "humanized," a process that tricks your immune system into thinking foreign antibodies are your own antibodies. This might reduce the rate of severe side-effects that are commonly encountered with horse-derived antivenoms.

Paralysis and death avoided

One of the most important families of toxins in snake venoms are neurotoxins.

These toxins prevent nerve signals from traveling from your brain to your muscles, paralyzing them. This includes paralyzing the muscles that inflate and deflate your lungs, so prey and human victims quickly stop breathing and die.

These neurotoxins are in the venoms of some of the world's most deadly snakes, including the African black mamba, the Asian monocled cobra and king cobra, and the deadly kraits of the Indian subcontinent.

In our research, we describe the discovery and development of a lab-made humanized antibody that can neutralize key venom neurotoxins from diverse snakes from diverse regions.

100% success with mice

The lab-made antibody is called 95Mat5 and was discovered after examining 50 billion unique antibodies to find ones capable of not only recognizing the neurotoxin in the venoms of many species but also able to neutralize its deadly effects.

When injected into mice that had received lethal doses of venom, 95Mat5 was able to prevent paralysis and death in all the venoms tested.

These results are particularly exciting as they show that generating lab-made antibodies that can broadly neutralize the effects of venoms from many species is feasible, making the development of a universal antivenom a realistic prospect.

However, 95Mat5 is a single antibody that only works against neurotoxins. As we said earlier, to make a universal antivenom you will require a handful of antibodies. This is because snake venoms don't just consist of neurotoxins.

Next: Haemotoxins

Some snake venoms have haemotoxins, which make you bleed, and some have cytotoxins, which destroy skin and bone. To create a universal antivenom, capable of treating any bite from any snake, we still need to identify additional antibodies that can broadly and potently neutralize the other toxin types, in the same manner as 95Mat5.

We hope that once identified, these antibodies can be mixed with 95Mat5 to make an antivenom that is capable of neutralizing the venom of any snake, no matter what toxin types it possesses.

The requirement for antibodies for other venom toxins and also the need to ensure any new lab-made antivenom for effectiveness and safety in human trials means it will still take many years for a universal antivenom to become available to snakebite victims.

Other hurdles need to be overcome. These new antivenoms will probably need to be stored in a fridge to prevent loss of effectiveness, so it will need to be shown that they can be distributed in often warm regions of the world that don't have reliable electricity for refrigeration.

Lab-made antibodies are some of the most expensive drugs on the planet. While we are hopeful, it remains to be seen if lab-made antivenoms will be affordable for most snakebite victims, who are usually some of the poorest people in the world.

This article first appeared in The Conversation.

BY SAM GEORGE

One of surfing’s most enduring misconceptions is the idea that surfers don’t read.  Forget any sociological data one might collate –- the fact that for over 40 years I’ve made a living writing about surfing gives the lie to that old stereotype. And you are, after all, reading this now.

Truth is, more surfers read, and are probably reading more, than at any other time in history. Monthly circulation numbers for the old surf mags (blessed be their names) were downright tepid compared to the number of individual visits to a website like the one you’re looking at now, not to mention all those Instagram stories. Still, while the current wave of short-form content offers the convenience of a quick sweet-salty snack, there is, on occasion, a hankering for a solid meal. And for that, you turn to a book.

Some notable, some awful

There are literally thousands of books about surfing to choose from. Well, at least a thousand, as a stroll through the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center’s library stacks will attest. Some of these volumes are quite notable, William Finnegan’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life foremost among these titles. Others are quite awful, like the ordinarily brilliant Paul Theroux’s 2021 North Shore misfire Under The Wave at Waimea. There are even a few classics, like Tom Blake’s seminal 1935 tome Hawaiian Surfboard (a pristine first edition, complete with dust jacket, will cost you a cool $18,000) and political scientist and author Eugene Burdick’s fascinating 1956 surf-socio-political novel The Ninth Wave.

But while it seems there are enough surf books out there to fill a Teahupo’o barrel, only a few meet my criteria for “required reading.” These are works that help construct –- and in some cases shore up –- the foundation of a fully integrated, fully informed, and fully involved understanding and appreciation for the surfing life. Again, this is my list, gleaned over 57 years of reading about surfing, and writing about it for almost as long. Consider this a good take-off spot from which to build your own impressive library.

The book that changed everything

GIDGET: THE LITTLE GIRL WITH BIG IDEAS (1957)

First published in 1957, this bestselling “coming-of-age” story of a precocious teenager’s discovery of Malibu’s nascent surf scene is not only perhaps the best novel ever written about surfing, it’s undeniably the most impactful. Great characters, authentic period vernacular and a delightful, fully-articulated heroine are icing on the cake. By introducing the rest of the world to the magic of California summer surf culture, this is the little book that changed…well, everything.

THE HISTORY OF SURFING (2010)

A follow-up to surfing historian Matt Warshaw’s acclaimed Encyclopedia of Surfing (2003), this equally authoritative volume represents not only the most meticulously researched chronological history of the sport, but Warshaw’s best writing. It’s as if the deliberately dispassionate tone of the encyclopedia led to a decision to eschew academic examination in lieu of an imminently readable combination of pertinent information and informed opinion.  If you could only have a single book about surfing, this would be it.

ALL FOR A FEW PERFECT WAVES (2008)

When it came to telling the Mickey Dora story, author David Rensin cracked the code: let those who claimed to have known him spill it. Considering that Dora is perhaps the sport’s most iconic archetype (for better or worse), this exhaustive oral history peels back the curtain, exposing the emotional cost of life spent as a rebel without a pause. Dora’s is our ultimate cautionary tale; no surfer could read this and still want to be him.

The puzzle of Polynesia

SEA PEOPLE (2019)

The only book on the list that’s not about surfing…but in many ways, it is. A colorful volume examining “The Puzzle of Polynesia,” author Christina Thompson, editor of the Harvard Review, dives deep into the fascinating story of the first people to populate the Pacific, a remarkable diaspora that culminates with the colonization of the Hawaiian Archipelago. If as a surfer you ever plan on someday going there, read this book to absorb the absolutely essential cultural humility it engenders. Trust me, you’ll thank me for it, especially the first time you paddle out at Velzyland.

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE AN HOUR AGO: THE STOKED SIDE OF SURFING OR HOW TO HANG TEN THROUGH LIFE AND STAY HAPPY (1967)

Written by the legendary Phil Edwards (with contributions from Sports Illustrated writer Bob Ottum), the equally iconoclastic Dave Parmenter considers this volume to be surfing’s “Good Book.” Meaning an inspirational philosophical treatise disguised as a memoir that not only captures all the innocent joy of being a surfer in the 1950s and '60s, but provides a useful template for a fulfilling contemporary surfing existence. Long out of print, it’s only available to buy from private collectors. But just because it’s hard to find doesn’t mean it shouldn’t belong on this list. Even more so, actually.

Antithesis to Gidget

BREATH (2009)

Written by renowned and much-beloved Australian author Tim Winton, this complex, somewhat sad coming-of-age story set in a fictitious West Australia surf town (the absolute antithesis to “Gidget’s” sunny romp) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Enough said in that department. But with its unflinching depiction of the often-deleterious nature of the surfing compulsion, this novel effectively serves as a testament to the benefits of a more well-balanced surfing life.

Little-known classic

WAVE WOMAN: THE LIFE AND STRUGGLES OF A SURFING PIONEER (2020)

To my infinite shame, I have to admit that I’d never heard of Vicky Heldreich Durand until the publication of her memoir. I’m probably not alone in that dereliction. So I’ll encourage every surfer of both genders to get this book and realize that not all of our courageous, committed cultural pioneers were men –- and men who faced but a fraction of the sociological challenges met so adeptly and inspirationally by women like Durand. If this book had come out in 1963, it may have changed the entire direction of the sport.

 

IN DEEP (2023)

What can you say about a collection of surf magazine features that includes the very first profile of teenaged Kelly Slater, written in 1989, and another written about the 11-time world champ in 2021? As Kelly put it in his foreword to Matt George’s impressive volume: “Matt’s book captures an important time in surfing’s written history — a time when you didn’t know people by looking at their Instagram; when you learned who they were by traveling with them, riding with them, and experiencing life with them.”

The way it was

PEANUTS (2009)

Laguna Beach surfer/writer/waterman Craig Lockwood’s evocative oral biography of the late George “Peanuts” Larsen, one of the most under-appreciated figures in surf history, pays homage to this extraordinary man and the extraordinary times during which he flourished. 

“I’m not talkin’ about the way it was,” Larson once told Lockwood, speaking of the post-WWII era along the coast of Southern California. “Just the way it’s never gonna be again.” Google this book and revel in our collective heritage.

TYPHOON (1902)

Okay, I’m getting literary here, and if author Joseph Conrad’s tale of a nondescript steamship caught in a malevolent typhoon isn’t about surfing, it comes pretty damn close. Consider this passage, which just as easily could have been written about getting caught inside on a really big day: “The long, long stress of a gale does it; the suspense of the interminably culminating catastrophe; and there is a bodily fatigue in the mere holding on to existence within the excessive tumult; a searching and insidious fatigue that penetrates deep into a man’s breast to cast down and sadden his heart…”

BY WILL BRENDZA

Athletes Christina Lusti and Andrew McNab venture deep into British Columbia's Monashees on a quest for adventure, solitude, and the thrill of a first descent of the third-highest summit in B.C.'s Gold Range

British Columbia is home to some of the most gnarly skiing in the world. The mountains jut up at near vertical angles in many places, reaching from sea level up thousands of meters. Many of the peaks, couloirs, and glaciers in this region have never been skied.

Which is exactly what draws Black Crows athletes Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger and Andrew McNab to the southwest couloir of Mount Niflheim in their new film, Chasing Niflheim.

No beta

“The allure of first descents is you don’t have beta,” Lusti says in the film. “You have to figure it out for yourself.”

The film documents the skiers’ second attempt to climb and ski this couloir. A year prior, Lusti and McNab climbed Mount Niflheim only to arrive at the ridge they thought would take them to their target, and discover it was impassable. So, they returned in 2023 to try again. And this time, the plan was to skip the ridge and climb the couloir directly.

The descent is a monster. It zigzags down the face of the mountain steeply and leaves no room for error. But, if there are any two skiers capable of shredding it (and making it look totally steezy), it’s McNab and Lusti. Lusti is a past Olympic skier, and McNab is a local to Revelstoke who grew up skiing these mountains.

The film Chasing Niflheim follows the Black Crows athletes as they assault their target, climb the couloir, and ski down it in an amazing display of talent and cinematography. The views are incredible. And the skiing is so radical it’s hard to wrap your head around.

This story originally appeared on GearJunkie.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

On a Tuesday afternoon in August of 2022, Alex Honnold took the final steps to the top of a previously unclimbed peak in eastern Greenland. Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot sea cliff, is a daunting feature of nature that juts directly up from the freezing waters of Nordvestfjord in the Scoresby Sound. It’s a fantastically beautiful place full of ice-laden waters –- an unforgiving climate battered by howling, freezing winds.

Although Honnold likely subscribes to George Mallory’s “because it is there” climbing mindset, he had another reason to go to the ends of the Earth to embark on the trip: gathering information about an area of the planet that is a canary in the coal mine of the climate crisis. And on Feb. 4, a new three-part miniseries called Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold that documents the expedition was released.

Honnold was joined by Hazel Findlay and Mikey Shaefer, both of whom are bonafide climbing superstars. The plan was to assist a French glaciologist named Heidi Sevestre with accessing some of the most remote parts of one of the most remote places in the world. They enlisted the help of Greenlandic guide Adam Kjeldsen and adventurer Aldo Kane to do so.

Hard to access

Researchers have long theorized that the area might be less sensitive to climate change because of its altitude. But given how difficult it is to reach those areas, the data supporting the theory was a little thin.

“East Greenland is one of the most remote and least studied parts of the Arctic, which makes it very important scientifically,” Sevestre told National Geographic a few days after they returned. “We desperately need scientific data from this region. Studying the fiords, the glaciers, the ice sheets will bring so much data to the scientific community that the contribution will be extremely positive.”

Honnold is an interesting man. I caught up with him about Arctic Ascent via a Zoom call. He sat in a small room that served as a sparse office he called “his closet.” Just a few images hung on the walls behind him — a map of the world and a few framed photos of mountains — and Honnold spoke to me about doing things that most people would dream of doing in a calm, measured manner that would normally be reserved for a conversation about an afternoon walk in the park.

For the layperson, Ingmikortilaq looks impossibly difficult to climb. And although Honnold is the world’s most accomplished big-wall climber, he too was awed by the majesty of that bare wall of granite.

Fear factor

“I think we’re more similar than you might think,” he told me when I asked him about his motivation and whether he feels frightened before embarking on an attempt like the one in Arctic Ascent. “When I look at something like that, I’m also intimidated by it. We’re sort of awed by it. I mean, I’m an experienced climber, so I see that it’s possible, but I think that for me part of the pleasure is to look at something that seems so daunting like that, and then to actually be able to achieve it.

"You take something that seems impossible and then, through a long period of hard work and effort, make it possible. It’s not like I look at it and am like, ‘Oh, that looks trivial.’ I look at it, I’m like, ‘wow, that’s really intimidating.’ I like finding things that are right in that sweet spot where it’s challenging enough to be daunting, but still possible, hopefully.”

As a relatively new father of a two year old (and a baby on the way), Honnold doesn’t take these trips as lightly as he might’ve in the past. But as the trip came together, he knew it was something he couldn’t miss. Not just because it was a chance to do something no one had ever done before, but because it was a chance to do something far more important than climbing a mountain.

Family leave

“Would it be worth leaving the family for that long just to go climb a wall?” he said. “Maybe. But if you’re with the right people and you’re doing climate science that will then be broadcast on mainstream media, you’re sort of like, ‘oh, that makes it worth it.’ I don’t want to be gone for six weeks just to have fun with my buddy and climb a wall. It has to be worth it. I think making meaningful contributions to climate science and the climate science communication is important. Eastern Greenland is so fragile and so important.”

Shallow ice cap

Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold doesn’t only cover the climb of Ingmikortilaq. Just getting to the base was exceedingly difficult. They first needed to get to the Renland Ice Cap, where the movement of the Arctic sea ice has a strong influence on the climatic conditions. Researchers using ice cores from the Renland Ice Cap can look back in time about 100,000 years. And since it’s a relatively shallow ice cap that lacks a brittle ice zone like that of say, the Greenland Ice Sheet, it better allows researchers to look to the past to predict the future.

But to get there, Honnold and the crew first needed to make a 1,500-foot ascent up something called the Pool Wall, then cross the vast, barren expanse of the Renland Ice Cap. Honnold rated the Pool Wall at 5.12c, which is no easy feat even for the most experience climber, weather conditions not withstanding.

“It doesn’t do justice to how mega the wall is,” he said. “It was 20˚F (-6˚C), and we climbed it in a snowstorm.”

Outside comfort zone

Sevestre, the glaciologist with the climbers, was a little nervous. Although she had done some climbing, the Pool Wall was her first real introduction to big-wall climbing. “It was way outside my comfort zone,” she said. “Scientists don’t typically climb big walls.”

Honnold, though, knew she would fare just fine. “She is incredibly fit and incredibly capable,” he told me. “She was actually relatively experienced with rope work, because she’s rappelled in and out of ice caves a lot. She was carrying this tremendously heavy backpack. She had all the scientific equipment and stuff. And she’s just a monster. She’s very strong.”

Even as she gritted her teeth hundreds of feet above the ground, she stopped to take samples of the rock face she clung to. Those samples will help other scientists to understand how fast the ice sheet retreated at the end of the last ice age. That knowledge will in turn help them to make projections relating to future sea level rise as the Greenland Ice Sheet melts.

The Pool Wall was just the beginning. After summiting it, they faced a grueling five-day trek over the Renland Ice Cap, dragging most of the supplies behind them and taking realtime measurements of the snow’s depth and density as they traveled over it. It was new territory for Honnold.

A different, vaster scale

“The whole experience in Greenland was definitely a different scale,” he remembered. “Because the landscape is so vast and we traveled so far across it. Everything was bigger. I think part of the appeal of the expedition was to really experience that landscape.”

Over the course of those days crossing the Renland Ice Cap, Honnold and the rest of the team used a variety of techniques to check in on Greenland’s health. They installed temperature sensors, scanned glaciers with 3D lasers, and even launched a float designed by NASA into the fiord to collect information over the next two years about water temperatures and salinity, both of which are affected by melting ice. And finally, after crossing those grueling miles, they reached their destination — or the bottom of it, at least.

Staring up at Ingmikortilaq, the climbers were struck with the enormity of the task ahead of them. Honnold, who has climbed some of the hardest routes in the world (and famously free soloed Yosemite’s El Capitan), called it “a horrendous, death-defying wall.”

Over the next five days, the expedition team moved fixed ropes up the first half of the wall. Then, over the final two days, Honnold and Findlay pushed hard to reach the top, spending a freezing night on a thin ledge, carrying water and freeze-dried food in their packs as they climbed.

Horrifyingly loose rock

“Hazel and I both thought it was the most serious thing of its kind that we’d ever done,” Honnold told National Geographic as the team was boarding a motorboat for a 20-hour return journey through the ice-choked fiords back to the nearest Inuit village. “To do nearly 4,000 feet of climbing, on horrifyingly loose rock...It felt interminable.”

Arctic Ascent is an important show. It’s much more than entertainment for the sake of entertainment. It packages a message that the whole world needs to hear into a box that even those with only the slightest of interest in the climate crisis will be interested in.

“All people should care what happens in the Arctic, because if the ice melts it will theoretically raise sea levels by up to 20 feet,” Honnold explained. “And that’s a big deal for the several 100 million people that live on coasts around the world. I mean, the biggest mega cities in the world are on the coast. That’s hundreds of millions of people who are affected by what happens in the Arctic.”

We live in a surprisingly fragile world, and our relentless pursuit of convenience is throwing the balance off. It’s easy to ignore it as we bask in the comforts of our ingenuity, but the very lives of future generations depend on change. In order to begin making those necessary changes, we must first be aware of the toll that pursuit is taking on the planet. Arctic Ascent attempts to lay that toll out in no uncertain terms.

More than climbing

“It helps people understand why this matters to the rest of the world,” Honnold said. “I mean, obviously, one TV program isn’t going to change climate policy in any way. On the other hand, compared to everything else that’s on television, I think that this is doing people more of a service than most of TV for sure. If you’re going to go to all the trouble and expense to go to the middle of nowhere, why don’t you have somebody with you who can use that opportunity?

"We were using the opportunity to climb an unclimbed peak, which is cool. But ultimately, that’s not really doing a whole lot of good for the world. It’s important to be able to communicate both those stories to a mainstream audience and hopefully allow people to appreciate the beauty and the fragility of Eastern Greenland. Hopefully, that’s the real service.”

Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold premiered Feb. 4 on National Geographic and Feb. 5 on Disney+ and Hulu.

The travel industry’s approach to global expeditions has evolved since World Expeditions began nearly 50 years ago. To stick around that long, the company has stayed at the forefront of travel organizers with its curation of epic adventures for mountaineers and explorers.

Look around for expedition travel packages and you’ll notice many of the same destinations pop up. Conversely, Word Expeditions prides itself on its lesser-known treks in more remote locales and its ability to conduct them sustainably.

The company offers a variety of trips that include cycling, polar cruises, and even wildlife safaris. However, here we'll focus on the company’s bigger treks and mountaineering expeditions.

These more physically demanding journeys require mountaineering experience and can take 30 days to complete – or 150 days if you’re up for its grandest adventure.

Treks and Expeditions

Since its first expedition-style trip to the Himalayas nearly 50 years ago, World Expeditions has kept mountain adventures at its core. It now offers a months-long trip across the Great Himalaya Trail, which we cover in more detail below.

The adventure company's biggest treks include iconic ascents like Aconcagua and Mont Blanc, while others take you to less-traveled peaks like the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. Want to spend 16 days tackling climbing trips in Bolivia? There’s a package for that, too.

Some trips are mostly trekking with limited mountaineering, which makes them a great opportunity to gain more experience and confidence with those skills. If you need to brush up on or learn new mountain skills, they have weeklong courses with certified instructors and small class sizes.

Of course, premier destinations are only part of the equation when booking a holiday adventure. It’s important to know the philosophy of your expedition guides.

Holistic Adventure Philosophy

World Expeditions operates with the philosophy that ‘active outdoor’ travel, regardless of grading level, is a more authentic way to experience a destination.

The company wants guests to feel challenged, regardless of their age and experience, and “experience the joy of personal transformation through travel” as its core values state.

Through outdoor treks, guests can connect with themselves and others achieving physical goals while also taking in the beauty and the diverse cultures around the world.

World Expeditions also believes that local guides can offer the best experiences. Thus, they invest in training and developing local leaders. These leaders may work with Western guides to provide both well-run explorations and authentic cultural exchange.

Trip itineraries also emphasize small groups for a more personalized experience as well as to reduce the impact on the environments and communities you travel through.

An Ethical Approach

Over the years, World Expeditions has adapted its business practices to reduce the impact of its guests and work harmoniously with surrounding communities.

Part of its sustainable approach means protecting the environment alongside its travel routes. These treks and expeditions aim to reduce waste and eliminate single-use plastics, appreciate wildlife from a distance, and even offer carbon offsetting for guests.

And yet the impact on local communities is another factor in the company’s take on sustainability. Sometimes it means assisting with fundraising for local campaigns and raising awareness of its cultures.

One such example is the regenerative project underway in Purros, a village in northwestern Namibia that's been stricken by drought. There, food scarcity is a very real challenge, especially among school children who often eat just one meal a day – a bowl of maize.

The village's remote location makes transportation to acquire other foods cost-prohibitive, so the foundation seeks to build a closed tunnel garden overseen by a manager but attended to by the children as well. The variety of vegetables could improve nutrition as well as bring in income by selling excess vegetables to tourism venues.

Standout Trips

We’ve told you that World Expeditions prides itself on unique, remote explorations and treks. Now let’s dive into prime examples of its immersive, adventure travel packages.

The Holy Grail of Trekking

Imagine: You've just arrived at base camp and are slowly acclimating to the altitude. You've never felt more alive. These are the moments that the guides (and clients) at World Expeditions live for.

That’s but a taste of what you can expect on World Expeditions’ crown jewel itinerary: the exclusive Nepal traverse of the Great Himalaya Trail. The trail spans 1,000 miles (1,700km) and takes 150 days to finish.

The company first offered this trip in 2011, but the list of those who have completed it in one trip is small. It’s a big time commitment, yet offers so much more than checking off another mountain peak.

The full traverse starts in the far east, looking up at the world's third highest peak, and climbs to the high plateaus on the Tibetan borderlands in the far west. The trail includes some of the most remote mountain terrain (and wildlife) on earth. Along the way, trekkers can see all eight of Nepal's highest peaks (8000 meters+) and pass by centuries-old villages steeped in unique cultures.

The full traverse can be completed as a whole but the company also broke this down into seven different segments available as separate treks. Each segment offers the experience of big Himalayan vistas, big mountain passes, and remote valleys with rarely-visited villages.

In other words, each offers a mix of physical challenges that can develop a deep sense of personal achievement and camaraderie among guests with unique cultural exchanges.

Alpine Uganda

Conversely, picture ascending out of a lush jungle to an exposed, barren alpine in the heart of Africa. That’s the gist of World Expeditions’ trek through the Rwenzori Mountains, or Mountains of the Moon — one of the shorter and more accessible expeditions.

Your trip starts and ends with hotel stays, with 10 days spent trekking through the contrasting landscapes of tropical rainforests, Giant Lobelia forests, and expansive glaciers. Once underway, guests will spend their nights in fully supported, permanent camps with meals provided and accompanied by local guides.

Much of the trek goes through Rwenzori Mountain National Park, home to diverse flora, endangered species, and a source of the River Nile. The park is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The approach through valleys with flora like giant heather and bright ferns may fool you into forgetting the trip's big ascent on Margherita Peak (5,109 meters), Africa's third-highest mountain. To summit requires roping up and crampons, but it’s described as more of a hard scramble than a true climb.

Additionally, this equatorial destination is open to adventure nearly year-round. If you’re looking for a challenging and enriching experience outdoors in the winter months, this could make for an unforgettable “winter break” trip.

Uniquely Epic

The combination of grand, unique destinations and World Expeditions’ implementation of its core values through “thoughtful travel” set it apart from other adventure tourism companies. 

Whether you’re looking for a way to combine outdoor activities with tourism or checking off one of the Seven Summits, World Expeditions has trips that promise to challenge you physically and mentally enrich your life.

BY JUAN HERNANDEZ

A version of this story first appeared in The Inertia.

Nat Young has enjoyed a relatively successful career as a professional surfer. He came onto the Championship Tour scene with a tremendous rookie campaign in 2013 and sprinkled in some near-wins over the next few years.

While he did eventually fall off the full-time tour roster, Young fought his way back onto the Tour in 2021 via the Challenger Series. All said, the Santa Cruz native won enough heats through the years to sustain a decade-long run on, or within reach, of surfing’s elite tour. That’s nothing to scoff at.

He also arrived on that stage at a time before the surfer-content creator hybrid was the dominant route for professional talents. His career path followed the old school get a main sponsor, go win heats, and score the occasional magazine cover blueprint that ran surfing when print was still a part of the game.

That makes Young an interesting mind to pick on the topic of making a living as a professional surfer. How much money would an athlete make in terms of prize money and sponsorships in that mold of a pro surfer?

Top 10 surfers roll in money; the rest scramble

“There’s probably 10 guys in the world that make a lot of money,” Young told the Athletes & Assets podcast. “Nowhere near baseball or basketball money or football money, but upwards of a million dollars,” adding that “I guarantee if you took that money away they’d still be doing it.”

The podcast conversation is an interesting one, in that Young offers firsthand insight into how much the industry and the profession have changed over the past decade-plus.

Family help

“Kelly [Slater]’s probably the top dog," says Young, "but he’s also in a league of his own in terms of his name.”

He goes on to explain that some of the athletes he’s seen succeed financially were often working on that prize money and competitive success for investment capital. Young says his mother helped manage his finances when he was competing because “all I knew was how to surf.”

Then, when he was 23, he bought an apartment complex in Santa Cruz. He’s continued investing in real estate in the area, which, if you’ve ever looked at housing in the Bay Area, you know has paid off.

“I’m thankful because Santa Cruz is insanely expensive. Nowadays it’s ridiculous.”

BY ALEXANDER HARO

This review first appeared on The Inertia.

Torren Martyn should be considered one of the greatest surf adventurers of our time. There are plenty of surfers who travel a lot these days, but Torren takes truly epic trips. If his adventures came in written form, they would be sweeping sagas, thousands of pages long. And in early 2022, Martyn and his partner Aiyana Powell embarked on a voyage for the ages.

Martyn is a man who loves the search. Sure, he loves the waves at the end of the rainbow, but the act of looking is just as good. He and Ishka Folkwell, a filmmaker with some serious chops, have created some beautiful surf films. Thank You, Mother, for example, and more recently Distant Shore. They were also responsible for Lost Track Atlantic, a four-part series that saw them fly from Australia to England and buy a busted old 2008 Ford Transit van for peanuts, then attempt to go from northern Scotland all the way down to the equatorial coast of West Africa.

Novice sailors, epic voyage

Martyn’s latest film, Calypte, is one of his best yet. Torren and Aiyana, with just a few combined days sailing experience under their belts, had an opportunity to take a sailboat from the east coast of Thailand to Eastern Indonesia.

“They could learn as they went, get a few friends with sailing experience to help through the tricky bits and pick up as much as possible from them along the way,” the the filmmakers wrote. “With this plan, the pair embarked onto the South China Sea, headed up through the Strait of Malacca and around the tip of Sumatra; out into the Indian Ocean on a year-long expedition in search of waves.”

Of course, sailing is never without its problems, especially for a couple with almost no sailing experience.

“What seemed like an idyllic journey didn’t come easy,” the team continued. “It was difficult to anticipate the challenges of the sleepless nights, the endless rolling and tossing of the boat, the breakdowns, the relentless maintenance and confined space. But adventures always seem sweeter if it really feels like you had to work to get there.”

And the adventure documented in Calypte is certainly a sweet one.

BY ALEXANDER HARO

This story originally appeared in The Inertia.

When Mike Coots was 18 years old, he was attacked by a shark. It was 1987, and it left him with one less leg. In the following years, however, Coots became something unexpected: a staunch advocate for sharks.

Now, he has a new book out that looks at some of nature’s most feared and misunderstood predators. Shark: Portraits, as the name implies, is full of some of the most incredible imagery you’ve ever seen. The photos span about eight years and were shot all over the world, from New Zealand, Australia, the Maldives, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Mexico, and Tahiti. A small sampling of those photos is included here.

“I was bodyboarding at the time of the attack,” he told me over the phone. “It was late October. We call it Sharktober here in Hawaii. I don’t know why, but it’s just more of a sharky time in the state. The waves were really good that day, but there was a foul smell when we pulled up to the beach. There were a lot of dead fish in the area, and I should have taken that as a cue not to go out. The waves were definitely going off, though, so we jumped in the water and my friends got really good rides right off the bat. I was the last one out, except for this guy that I’ve never surfed with.”

'It was like five guys sitting on my legs'

As a set appeared on the horizon, Coots was sitting up on his board. He spun around and lay down to paddle for the wave when the shark hit him.

“I remember my fingertips hitting the surface of the water,” Coots recounted. “Right when I made that movement to catch the wave, a large tiger shark came up and grabbed both of my legs and I knew I was getting attacked. I felt a lot of pressure, but zero pain.  It just felt like there were five big guys sitting on my legs. I had a fight or flight response, so I punched it in the nose.”

In the moment, Coots wasn’t exactly sure how bad the damage was. His finger was badly cut because he tried to pry the shark’s mouth open so it would release his legs, but he didn’t realize the extent of the damage until a few moments later.

“The guy that was next to me — the stranger — he was totally freaking out. He was completely white as a ghost, and he just started paddling to the beach,” Coots remembered. “I yelled ‘Shark! Go in!’ and he just kept paddling.”

 

Incredibly, he made it to the beach

That’s when Coots glanced back at the horizon and caught sight of his leg.

“You know when you’re paddling in a prone position,” he said, “you don’t see what’s behind you? I looked over my shoulder to check what  was wrong with my leg, and I saw that my leg was just severed right off.”

Coots did manage to get himself to the sand, despite his injuries. A little wave came, and he caught it all the way to the beach. When he got there, he attempted to stand, likely in a state of shock, not yet having fully processed the fact that his leg was missing. When he tried to stand up, he collapsed. His friends were on the beach, and they acted quickly.

“They saw me coming in with one leg and everything,” he said. “They knew I was hurt and they came really fast to my aid and dragged me up a little farther up the beach. My friend came and made a tourniquet from my leash, and then they put me in the back of a pickup truck and we hauled ass to the emergency room. I thought I was gonna die that morning on the beach. I really thought that was certainly it for me and I went into shock on the truck ride to the emergency room. As soon as I got to the ER, I passed out and I woke up pretty much 24 hours later with my family next to me. I just felt really grateful to be alive when my eyes opened in the hospital room.”

Couldn't wait to get back on the water

Coots spent about a week in the hospital in the following days. Considering the fact that he’d had his leg bitten off by a shark, that is not all that long. The bite resulted in an almost perfect amputation, which helped the surgeons repair the damage. His doctors told him that if everything went as expected, he could be back in the water within a month or so, and he took them at their word. One would be forgiven, though, if they felt reservations about him going in the ocean again. But for Coots, that wasn’t ever an option.

“There was no resentment toward sharks. I just knew it was a freak accident,” he told me when I asked him whether he’d considered staying out of the water. “I had spent so much time in my life in the ocean, like almost every day, all day as much as I could if I wasn’t at school. I was a statistical anomaly and I was not on their menu. It was so good to get back in the water — it helped get some normality back in my life because I could go right back into the ocean and still ride waves and get barreled. I didn’t really skip a beat and didn’t get depressed or anything like that. I feel very fortunate. I had no nightmares or anything.”

Took up photography during recovery

Now, over three decades after his attack, Coots has dedicated much of his life to protecting sharks of all species. He took up photography in the wake of the attack. “It was a blessing, as it brought me to photography, which I learned during my downtime when I was injured,” he wrote. “I love everything about capturing images. Finding the light, building relationships, and seeking out the unordinary are what I base my passions on. ”

His book is a way to hopefully get the masses to look at sharks in a different light; not as murderous creatures stalking humans, but as an incredibly beautiful example of evolution. The book is years in the making. Thousands of photos taken over nearly a decade culled down to 200. For a long time, he’s been showcasing his work on Instagram, but Coots wanted to create something a little more tangible.

“It hasn’t really been done before,” he said of Shark: Portraits. “There are a lot of books on sharks: science books, kids' books, information about sharks. But we’re really trying to show sharks in a beautiful, authentic way.”

Coots was part of a book by Kai Lenny — one of his photos ended up being used for the cover — so he had the contact of someone at Rizzoli Publishing, the agency that published Shark: Portraits. Rizzoli also published a book showcasing surfer Danny Fuller’s photography in the past, and Fuller put in a good word for Coots, too.

Within a few days, he was in talks with the publishers. After months on end of killing his darlings, layout meetings, and all the other stuff that comes as part of the publishing process, they had a pretty good idea of what the final product was going to look like.

A different side of sharks

“I wanted to show a different side of sharks by using portraiture techniques,” Coots explained. “I use a portrait lens underwater. It’s very unorthodox. Most people use fisheye or really wide-angle lenses, but probably 90 percent of the book is shot with a 50mm lens.”

That choice of lens really did change the feel of Shark: Portraits, but it also meant that Coots had to get very close in order to take his photos. But Coots wasn’t ever all that nervous being face-to-face with them.

“I’d say I’m relatively comfortable most of the time,” he said. “I do get a little nervous, like when I do deeper dives, but that’s more the technicalities of scuba diving, like your equipment. It’s not as much about the sharks. I’ve always tried to dive in clear water… I mean, there’s definitely a healthy respect to it, but I don’t think I jump in the water scared. If I were to do that, I probably shouldn’t be jumping in the water, because I should be listening to that instinct, you know? I’m comfortable in the ocean, comfortable with sharks, and reading sharks. I just trust that process.”

During our conversation, I wondered whether Coots’ passion for shark conservation might be some sort of coping mechanism for what he’s been through.

“That’s hard for me to answer because I’m so connected about this journey,” he answered. “Being a shark attack survivor and being able to actually do something to help the health and the wellbeing of the oceans in any little way that I can for how much it’s given me. I feel a sense of indebtedness… The ocean has given me the most incredible life and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s just it’s been a really wonderful, wild ride.”

 

'Sharks are beautiful'

In speaking with Coots, I was keenly aware of just how much admiration he has for sharks. He hopes that his book might change the way we view them. Years of bad press — and films like Jaws — have skewed the public’s perception of what a shark actually is.

“Sharks are beautiful. They’re not always just going after something to bite with their eyes rolled back and their teeth protruding from their mouth,” Coots said. “The majority of the time, they’re just swimming beautifully under the water.  I wanted to shoot them in a portrait way so that maybe you can see a little bit of yourself in them. I see light and intelligence in these animals. If you can see a little bit of that in something, it makes you curious. That’s really the key, I think, in helping protect a species: having that compassion and empathy for that animal. That’s really what I hope the book does.”

Find Shark: Portraits at RizzoliUSA.com and on Amazon.

BY BRIAN SOUSA

Sure, climbing has lots of technical jargon, but no outdoor sport has as unique a vocabulary -- and delivery -- as surfing.

This story originally appeared in The Inertia.

The long-period swell is firing, your squash-tail is waxed, and you’re amped to shred. For once, the lineup isn’t full of groms busting shuv-its, and all you want to do is get slotted before a sponger snakes your heavy tube.

If you understood that, you’re 100 percent a surfer.

An old flatland-friendly friend recently texted me about a piece I wrote for Kooks Illustrated: “Nice work, Bud, though I only understood about half of it.” It’s fair to say this could’ve been because I spent the bulk of my English class time doodling skateboarders on “3-D” halfpipes, but I’d wager that said buddy couldn’t decipher le lengua de las olas (as you can see, I also majored in Espanol).

Let’s face it. We surfers talk like idiots.

It’s a thick smoothie to swallow, I know, and you’re straight frothing to disagree. But admit it: occasionally, out amid the ankle-slappers, you find yourself tuning in to the epic claims about late drops and green rooms and how yesterday was totally mental, Brah…and you’re like: wait…is that how I sound?

Here’s a cheat-code: ask a non-surfer in your life if you sound like a lunatic when you talk about playing in the waves…especially if you’re super-stoked after a glassy morning sesh on your gun during which you got shacked until it was blown out and your arms were noodles.

Spongers, dick-draggers, pig dogs

Sure, part of the societal construct that is surf-speak is hyperbole. We’ve all seen the classic “Wapow” pitted surfer interview and met a few real-life Spicolis. Plus, every hobby—and every sport—has its own lexicon. Watching basketball as a newbie, you’d probably be a little overwhelmed by “Alley-Oops” and “Dropping dimes from downtown.” In the office, you’d probably want to table this and pivot, per your email, and then circle back to those TPS reports in just a bit, correct?

However, there are two characteristics that set surfing’s mother tongue apart. First, the language itself is goofy as hell, from “spongers” and “dick-draggers” to “pig dog,” “doggy door” and “grom.” “Mushy sections” should refer to the questionable chicken burrito you found in your fridge, not the chunky wave you ate it on during dawn patrol.

Second, the way in which most surfers speak – the elongated, stoned tempo, the way we stretch words for emphasis like the finest THC taffy – doesn’t do anything to change the perception that surfers are perpetually stoned to the bejesus belt.

This characterization extends beyond communication. It’s pretty easy to pick out the parents on my SoCal street who surf –read, all of them – because they dress and talk exactly like their wave-ripping groms. To many East Coast peeps, in fact, California is full of strangely happy, healthy people with names like “Coral’” and “Ocean” who, instead of spending cold seasons in dark bars drinking hazy IPAs, look like they never grew up. It’s one of my favorite things about the state.

A sick sesh with offshores

When you hang out with your surfing buddies, a sick sesh with offshores sounds perfectly normal; but try telling your partner about the rad floater you did, despite all the logs out there. Before you even get to the kook with the total poo stance, they’ll be telling you to just clean the bathroom, already.

Even a glance at Surfline tells us that our dialect is cartoonish: this morning, for example, there’s a “slight crumble” and a “light bump, but still some corners to pick off.”

Thanks for the reporting, Reef.

Ironically, the world of surfing is known for its insightful creative writing. Writers like Kem Nunn, Don Winslow, Tim Winton, and Allan Weisbecker bring the surfing life and its characters alive on the page with vivid stories told in raggedly elegant style. Author Dwyer Murphy notes that surfing “…lends itself well to literature. There are flashes of blood-pumping action, followed by long stretches of waiting, during which time a lot of thinking can be done about the nature of life and the elements, if that’s your bend.”

So, why do surfers sling such seaworthy slang? One of the key ways that sub-cultures both anchor themselves in the modern world and evolve is through the creation of language, and surf lingo is nothing new. In the 1950s and ’60s, surfers purposefully marked their flourishing culture using new expressions and slang. Some words have Hawaiian roots, of course, and California beach culture and films like Endless Summer and Gidget all had a part to play in establishing and commodifying the constantly updating dialect. Our resulting surf vernacular is dedicated to the ocean world we know and love – experiences, waves, surfboards, maneuvers; our entire lifestyle.

It's about identity

Professor and psychologist Katherine Kinzler would agree, as she argues that when people talk, they are not only communicating the substance of their words but conveying their identities.

Surfers can sit and stare at the sea – even if it’s not going off – for hours. If our language is childlike, that’s because we freely admit that the ocean not only constantly shows us that we are insignificant, but also forces us to laugh at ourselves when we bail.

Perhaps the surfers’ dialect we unknowingly slip into is a way to separate ourselves from the pencil-pushing, pigskin-tossing masses. A way to show people that while some of us now have jobs and responsibilities, we remain obsessed with the simple act of riding waves. Maybe we speak slowly because our brains are perpetually divided between the fleeting memory of our last good wave, and the prospect of a sublime morning session at dawn…um, what were you saying, again, my dude?

We may sound like baked teenagers, but William Finnegan, author of the surf classic Barbarian Days, states that surfers are tasked with “intellectual work” on the daily. Finnegan notes “…that’s what people are doing in the water, this very close study of all the variables of wind and tide and turns, the size of the swell and the type and all these inexpressible variables that go into predicting what the ocean’s going to do.”

"Gnar gnar pow pow!"

Heady claim, brah. But, the next time you rag-doll down the face of a closeout, take that split-second to think about what the ocean is saying to you, and how that will change your perception of not only the conditions but yourself.

I lived in Lake Tahoe years back and spent many dawn patrols swimming in Sierra cement. I’ll never forget the day a long-time local skied past our crew on one of the season’s deepest days. “Gnar gnar pow pow, boys!” he shouted, pumping his poles.

We laugh about it to this day, but we knew what he meant. It wasn’t about the ridiculous jargon, but the pure stoke emanating from the core of his goggles and wispy beard.

Every sub-culture comes with its own language, its own peculiar way of speaking.

Ours is just a lot cooler than the others.

Your balloons don't float up to heaven. They go up ... and then back down, littering the ground and water, and ultimately killing animals.

BY RACHEL SCHRUTE

This story originally appeared in GearJunkie.

Picture this: You are devastated, standing in front of a funeral. As you finish speaking in front of loved ones, you pick up a live duck and slowly begin to choke it to death.

Can you imagine? Of course not. It’s horrible to even consider.

But why, then, is it socially acceptable to release a balloon in that same situation? Because ultimately, balloons released into the environment kill animals, pollute waterways, and litter remote forests and prairies around the world.

I’m not gonna be nice about this, and will probably hurt some feelings. I simply don’t care. People do some strange things when they’re grieving and even stranger things when they’re celebrating.

Sending balloons up to heaven may seem sweet, but I’m not sure Nana would be excited to know that you killed a bunch of songbirds in her memory.

Stop it.

Millions of balloons are released each year, leading to countless wildlife deaths and endless litter, in every corner of the map. So, how the hell did we get here and what can we do about it?

From bladders to blunders

Balloons have a history going back farther than you might think. Without going into a full-blown anthropology lesson, even the Aztecs used cat intestines filled with air to make crude balloon shapes for sacrificial purposes. Hot air balloons have been in use since the 1700s.

Balloons are not a new idea, but their form has changed drastically in modern times.

In 1842, Michael Faraday laid two pieces of rubber sheets down with a bit of powder between them. He then sealed the edges and inflated what would be the first rubber balloon. After that, balloon kits became all the rage. Those kits included sheets of rubber and sealant.

Rubber balloons as we know them made their way into production in 1907 in the U.S. By the ’30s and ’40s, “sausage-style” balloons became a staple, allowing clowns everywhere to create countless balloon poodles and swords.

The 1970s brought more than glam rock and disco. Mylar balloons now offered durability and graphic capabilities that rubber lacked.

Since then, balloons have been a fixture at every type of celebration. I’d love to tell you how many balloons are sold each year, but that number is hard to track. Approximately 50 million helium-filled balloons are sold in California alone each year.

A unique piece of trash

The real problem comes down to travel. It’s estimated that the average helium-filled balloon can float up to a height of around 20 miles above the Earth’s surface. That’s the point that the atmosphere and the helium inside the balloon reach equilibrium. The reality is, they tend to pop far before they reach that height.

The distance they can travel is a completely different story. The horizontal distance a balloon can travel is nearly infinite, pending circumstances, wind, location, and a host of other variables.

In December 2012, a group of British schoolchildren released 300 helium-filled latex balloons in an attempt to study weather and geography. Those balloons were attached to contact information, asking anyone who found them to please reach out to let the children know how far their balloons had traveled.

By February, they received a letter notifying the class that one of the balloons had traveled 10,545 miles, found in Australia. Balloons don’t stay where you release them, making them a unique problem. If they fell at our feet, we might have a better grasp of the damage.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Balloons: floating death

It’s nearly impossible to estimate the number of wildlife deaths caused by balloons each year. Because of the nature of balloons, they litter the entire globe.

Birds are one of the most visible victims, often becoming tangled in the strings causing strangulation and death. Both plastic grocery sacks and balloons look too much like a sea turtle’s native diet, leading to ingestion and suffocation. Fish are often found tangled in balloon waste, which is no different than being tangled in nets. It seems there is no demographic untouched.

Organizations have popped up across the globe in an attempt to educate the public on the dangers of releasing balloons.

The Desert Balloon Project is one that has seen the devastating effects of both mylar and latex balloons on our desert habitats. This organization was started by a teen who just happened to look around and realize something was wrong. If there’s anything more poignant than seeing a Bighorn Sheep Carcass with balloons knotted around its horns, I surely haven’t seen it.

View this post on Instagram

See this post on Instagram

PreventBalloonLitter.org is another taking drastic steps to try and fix the growing balloon litter issues. According to one of its studies:

In 2016-2019, volunteers participating in the International Coastal Cleanup reported more than 29,800 littered balloons in Mid-Atlantic states—New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Of these, 15,076 balloons were found in New York, 6,626 were found in New Jersey, and Virginia volunteers found 4,154 balloons. Data reveal that in Virginia most of the balloon litter is found on its beaches, demonstrating that balloon litter accumulates in some coastal environments. A 5-year (2013-2017) monitoring project on remote islands of Virginia documented 11,441 pieces of balloon litter—up to 272 pieces per mile of beach.

But I use biodegradable latex

Bad news, Karen: Your biodegradable balloons are out there suffocating Bambi. “Biodegradable” latex — advertising 100% natural rubber that completely biodegrades — purports a fix for the growing balloon blight unfolding on the landscape.

But multiple studies have found that this claim is 100% false. The findings show that these balloons will break down, but only under absolutely perfect commercial compost conditions. One major study found that the biodegradable latex balloons, on average, only lost 1-2% of their mass after 16 weeks in standard composting conditions. In fact, those same balloons in freshwater actually gained mass.

The findings lead to this very confident, sweeping conclusion:

“Taken together, latex balloons did not meaningfully degrade in freshwater, saltwater, or compost indicating that when released into the environment, they will continue to contribute to anthropogenic litter and pose a threat to wildlife that ingest them.”

‘Latex balloons do not degrade uniformly in freshwater, marine and composting environments,’ Journal of Hazardous Material, February 2021.

Here’s your dose of reality: No matter how green-washed your latex balloons are, they still murder animals and wreak havoc on the environment.

Mylar balloons: worst of all

Walk into your neighborhood dollar store, and for the low, low price of $1, you can walk out with a helium-filled fun bag that, if released into the wild, will literally never decompose. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that mylar balloons do not ever biodegrade. They can also travel for thousands of miles before dropping out of the sky — meaning you could be littering landscapes you’ve never even seen, forever!

That’s right. That bright yellow smiley face that you bought for your screaming toddler on a whim, which he then let go of in the parking lot, will have the opportunity to litter the landscape and strangle animals with its pretty little ribbon for eons after our species has gone extinct.

Not only that, but mylar balloons are also responsible for thousands of power outages every year. In just New Jersey alone, the largest gas and electricity provider saw a 26% increase in power outages caused by released mylar balloons between 2015 and 2020. What a show, right? Using up resources and leaving people without power is just good ol’ fashioned fun.

What about helium?

Helium, on this particular planet, is running out. As far as we know, helium is the second most common element in the universe. There is a lot of it out there. The problem? There isn’t a lot of it in here.

On this little rock we call Earth, helium is the only element on the periodic table that is labeled as being completely nonrenewable. Helium comes from the radioactive decay of other deep-earth elements, and that process takes many, many millennia to occur.

All that is to say: The planet isn’t making any more helium, anytime soon.

So, when will we run out? You may be shocked to learn that it’s estimated that your precious balloons will be grounded in just 25-30 years.

Who cares, right? So we run out of helium, boo-hoo. Clowns will have to pick up a new skill, and Disney will have to come up with new methods to move houses. No more high-voice tricks to impress the kiddies? What’s the harm?

Well, if you’ve ever had an MRI, you have helium to thank. The element stays in a liquid state at insanely low temperatures. If the temps dropped to -269˚C, helium would flow like a beautiful liquid river. That property allows helium to be a super-cooling agent, keeping machinery like a magnetic resonance imaging machine from overheating.

Outside of the medical world, helium is used for welding, laser processing, the manufacturing of fiber optics, semiconductor processing, scuba diving, and so much more.

But go on … keep on filling up those super-important balloons just to keep Junior from losing his shit at the store.

Why should we care?

If you’ve made it this far and don’t understand why you should care, you’re probably a lost cause. In that event, I’ll let you know why I care and what I’ve seen.

I live in a place that is, in modern terms, relatively untouched. As a guide in Yellowstone National Park, I’ve found both latex and mylar balloons far from the reach of the tourist traps. I’ve come across them in the backcountry, wrapped up in eagle’s nests. I found them melted and lying across the travertine terraces of the geyser basins. I’ve seen them wrapped up in the tallest pines and floating in the most pristine waters.

As a hunter, I’ve sat glassing an opposing ridge and caught a flash I assumed was human, shocked that I wasn’t alone in the middle of literal nowhere, only to turn my scope and see a smiling balloon staring back at me. There is no place untouched by these stupid sacks of not-fun.

Seeing a deer with balloons and ribbons tangled around its antlers is hard to watch. Not to use the overly victimized sea turtle for yet another agenda, but the appearance of a balloon in the water looks so much like a jellyfish. Causing a turtle to suffocate on a balloon because you wanted to celebrate Jenny’s graduation seems so dissociated and unnecessary.

At this stage, if you still need convincing, you’re just not going to get it.

My final hot take: If you absolutely have to buy balloons (you don’t) to satisfy your celebratory bug, at least be responsible about how you use them, where you dispose of them, and for cripes’ sake — stop releasing them into the wild.

Fjällräven wants to pluck you off the couch and drop you into the adventure of a lifetime — its 2024 Polar Expedition.

When Conrad Vitasse found out he’d been accepted for Fjällräven’s 2023 Polar expedition, he started walking. In the cold. A lot.

An avid outdoorsman and photographer from Quebec, Conrad was already in good shape, but he knew that the Polar expedition entailed mental and physical demands that would push him far beyond his past experiences. So, he got to work.

As a young man, he dreamt of becoming an explorer and working in wildlife conservation. Ultimately, as is the case for many, his reality fell short of his dreams, and he entered the field of marketing, instead.

Over the past decade, Conrad gradually came to the realization that his life lacked a greater meaning. “I had never done anything extraordinary,” he reflected. “So I was really looking forward to going on this expedition.”

After being accepted, his first priority was to be in good shape and not break anything. Just to be on the safe side, he took the season off from skiing to avoid unnecessary risk. Instead, he ran and walked often, especially in the cold.

He knew that the Polar Expedition would include lots of cardiovascular activity in sub-zero temps, so he attempted to simulate these conditions as much as possible.

“I wanted to see how I manage doing sporting activities in sub-zero temperatures,” Vitasse explained. “I remember going hiking a week before leaving for Sweden. We had a cold spell and the wind was very strong. The temperature that day was -38°C (-36.4°F).”

A dream Is born

Now in its 19th year, Fjällräven Polar brings together ordinary people to do extraordinary things. It gathers 20 folks from around the globe for a 300km dog sledding expedition through the Scandinavian arctic tundra. The point? With the right equipment and the right knowledge, anyone can enjoy nature in arctic conditions, regardless of previous outdoor experience

For his part, Conrad first learned about Fjällräven Polar while exploring the brand’s website. As he remembers it, reading the article was like reading a note to himself. It was exactly what he’d always dreamed of — an expedition through the Arctic in winter conditions.

There, in front of his computer screen, Vitasse made a vow. “I promised myself to stop dreaming and to do everything in my power and beyond to live the life I’ve always wanted. So, even though I thought I had no chance, I decided to get over my fear and apply.”

And that’s the point. Far from targeting and recruiting swashbuckling arctic veterans, Fjällräven wants to pluck you off the couch and drop you into the adventure of a lifetime. That said, the 2024 Fjällräven Polar is seeking adventure-minded folks for its 2024 Polar Expedition. If you’re even close to being on (or near) the fence, you should apply!

Rising to the occasion

For the 2023 Polar Expedition, Conrad and his teammates started their journey in Poikkijärvi, Sweden, and traveled for five days up to Signaldalen, Norway. The route traversed forests, frozen lakes, and through the Scandinavian tundra to the mountain range at the border with Norway.

Along the way, the team learned how to camp in the Arctic and manage the sled dog teams — even how to make a mattress with branches. With all water sources frozen solid, they melted snow to boil water for cooking and for watering their canine companions.

“The biggest challenge was to do all this with thick gloves and with temperatures as low as -20°C (-4°F),” Vitasse remembered. “Not to mention that the only shelter we had was our tent. So we were mostly outside and the wind was sometimes very brutal.”

Beyond the fundamentals of camping and driving a sled dog team, Vitasse experienced a psycho-spiritual transformation along the way. He had lost his father a few years prior — the person he looked up to the most — and was struggling in his professional and personal life. Then, the pandemic made things worse.

Burnt out and depressed, Conrad began taking long walks in the forest with his dog. As his mind became clearer, his childhood dreams resurfaced and he decided to fight for the dreams he had long forgotten.

Once in the thick of the arctic tundra, he was amazed. “My mind was blown away by the beauty and purity of the landscape,” he remembered. “Sometimes it felt like we were traveling to places no one had ever been before. Above the treeline, the landscape revealed the beauty of the mountains, but also their unforgiving side as there was nothing to protect from the glacial wind.”

“During the expedition,” he continued, “while I was on the sled and looking at my dogs and the beauty around me, I felt peace for the first time in my life — a true connection between myself and my environment.”

Help along the way

To be clear, Fjällräven Polar is not a vacation. From sunup to sundown, the team was busy setting up and taking down camp, melting snow, cooking, taking care of the dogs, preparing the sleds, and sledding. By the evening, everyone was tired and needed a good, long night’s sleep. But Conrad loved every moment.

Such an expedition is no joke and requires heaps of equipment and logistical planning. After 19 years, Fjällräven has reduced it to a science.

Before setting off, every team member received a backpack with all their gear. The kits included base layers, mid-layers, a down jacket, a shell jacket, a polar parka, shell pants, winter bibs, winter boots, socks, gloves, a balaclava, and different types of hats. As for hard goods, the team was given a thermos, a 1L bottle, a headlamp, and a knife. For camp, they used Polar Endurance tents and Polar -30 sleeping bags, as well as cooking gear from Primus.

“Every piece was designed for a particular purpose,” Vitasse recalled of his Polar kit. “But I was very impressed by the shell jacket and the boots. The jacket was the Bergtagen Eco-Shell. It’s simple, nothing goes in. It stopped everything. Whatever the environment could throw at me; wind, snow, or even dog claws, the Eco-shell was like an impenetrable fortress.”

It’s about the journey

The worst part of Conrad’s trip? When it ended. After such a beautiful time spent in the wilderness, it was hard to leave behind the experience.

“Within an hour, we left the mountains where everything was white and pure and far from civilization. Then suddenly, after crossing a forest, we arrived in a parking lot with trucks and a bus,” he said. “Within 20 minutes, the sleds were emptied and stored in the trucks, the dogs were gone and it was time to board the bus.” Just like that, it was over, and many tears were shed.

“That was the hardest moment for me — saying goodbye,” he recognized. “I still miss my dogs and my new Polar family.”

Here’s another advance in technology that brings us one step closer to the Star Trek universe: tractor beams.

The technical name is "electrostatic tractor." Instead of drawing a shuttlecraft into a docking bay, the tractor beam will maneuver space junk safely out of Earth’s orbit.

As the commercial space industry lifts off, the number of new satellites has grown so quickly that space junk has become a concern. Breakages, old equipment, and discarded rocket boosters have the space around Earth looking a little like a junkyard.

This garbage can collide with working spacecraft or plummet dangerously to earth. An atmosphere cluttered with space debris is known as Kessler Syndrome. For stargazers, it also creates an increasingly confusing view of the night sky when sunlight catches them. Some objects shine more brightly than most stars.

The electrostatic tractor won’t work by using artificial gravity or energy fields, like the ones on Star Trek. These remain science fiction. Instead, it would use positive and negative charges to pull junk in a desired direction.

Charged particles

An electron gun would fire negatively charged electrons at, for example, a broken satellite. These electrons give the satellite a positive charge. The electrostatic attraction between the two objects then lock them together at a range of 30m.

The tractor would then use its own propulsion to pull the object into distant space before returning to its position. This touchless solution avoids the potential hazards associated with harpooning, lassoing, and netting -- other ideas to remove space junk.

The electrostatic tractor is not without challenges. Removing the junk would have to be a slow, careful operation to prevent collisions with other objects. So slow, in fact, that the tractor beam likely won't be able to keep up with the increase in space junk.

The other problem is cost. “The science is pretty much there, but the funding is not,” Kaylee Champion of the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado told LiveScience.

The main cost would be building and launching the device. It’s hard to see how an investor would get any sort of return, so who would pay for this? Queue the need, perhaps, for an intergalactic billionaire with environmental leanings.

BY EVAN QUARNSTROMThis article first appeared in The Inertia

When the people of Odessa, Ukraine woke to sounds of missiles and bombs on the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, it became clear that their world had changed forever. They would now have to live in a state of war. Odessa, nestled on the Black Sea coast of southern Ukraine, is home to a small, but vibrant surfing community. When the local surfers were enjoying their chilly winter sessions in early 2022, little did they know they wouldn’t be able to surf again for over a year.

While Ukrainians still live with the looming fear of an attack due to the ongoing Russian invasion, the city of Odessa has attempted to give some sense of normalcy back to its citizens. This summer, the municipality opened up the city’s shoreline for leisure. Weary of stray sea mines and what the Ukrainian military would think of riding waves, the surfers were hesitant to return to their local surf spots. But last week when a solid two-meter swell was forecast, five brave souls decided to paddle out at Odessa’s Arcadia Beach. It was the first official surf session in Ukraine since the war began.

One of those surfers in the water was Vasyl Kordysh. He’s the President of the Ukrainian Surfing Federation and has been living in Odessa throughout the war. When we saw Kordysh posting Instagram stories surfing in Ukraine, we were curious. Isn’t it a bit dangerous to surf in a war zone? I gave Kordysh a call to hear about why Ukrainians are back in the water in Odessa, whether they worry about their safety, and how the experience made them feel.

Stick close to shore

You guys are surfing again in Ukraine. Tell me about it. 

At the end of summer, the city administration started allowing people to spend time on the seashore. They’ve been letting people swim a bit. Not far from shore, but maybe 100 meters maximum. They say it’s safe. I was thinking, we won’t be catching waves more than 100 meters from the shoreline, so it’s possible to try to surf if some swells come. We had a good forecast last week. The swell was running so we decided to paddle out. It was fun, some good size, up to two meters, maybe a little bit more – pretty good for an inland sea. It was a nice, long session.

 

The spot we surfed is Arcadia Beach. It’s the most popular beach in Odessa. There are soldiers walking around all the time there and we were a little nervous about what they would think about us surfing there. But everything went fine.

Was that your first surf in Ukraine since the war started?

Well, technically not for me. I had one session before in the middle of the summer. There were some small waves at a long right nearby. It’s a longboard spot, but we don’t post about it. It’s a bit of a secret spot.

Mines and missiles

Considering the sea mines and missile barrages, how did you determine that it was safe to surf?

Almost all summer, people used the shoreline and there were no accidents, so I was thinking it must be fine. But I also understand that when big waves come, mines can possibly be swept in, too. Actually, during our session, in a city just 30 kilometers away, a mine washed up on the shore. It just reminded us how real that is. It’s still possible. We were a little bit nervous, but we didn’t think much about it. The chances are so small.

How many people surfed this session at Arcadia Beach?
Five people. Four surfers and one SUP surfer.

How did it feel to surf your local spot for the first time since the start of the war?

It’s amazing. For some moments I felt like the war wasn’t happening. It was like a bad dream and everything was like it was before. It was pretty good, but as we surfed we could see some Ukrainian warships cruising around in the background. That brings you back to reality. It’s real. But overall, I was so stoked.

'I hope nothing bad happens'

What is the latest news on the situation of the Ukrainian surfers?

It’s still not possible for men to leave the country. Sometimes there are some legal ways to leave the country for some type of training camp or something, but it’s very complicated. Almost all of our Odessa local surfing crew has stayed here. This day, surfing was super emotional for us. I hadn’t seen some of the guys since our last session before the war. But like I said, it was as if nothing had happened. We were just back in the water at our local spot.

Do you plan to start surfing more regularly during the winter season?

Yeah, I guess so. Tomorrow there might be some small swell. My warm wetsuit is ready. I will surf until something happens, but I hope nothing bad happens. We know that mines could drift into our surf spot or the army could be against us surfing, given that we are at war. These things are still in our minds. We can’t 100 percent have fun when we’re surfing. Maybe 80 percent is having fun and the other 20 percent is worried about these bad things that could happen. But what can we do? Surfing is a drug. How can we deal without surfing? This is our life.

This story originally appeared in The Inertia.

BY COOPER GEGAN

For the past two days, emergency crews have been searching for the body of a surfer killed by a shark in South Australia. The search for the 55-year-old male surfer has yielded only a piece of wetsuit and part of his surfboard.

The victim, known only as Todd, was a nomad who pursued surfing around Australia, according to the South Western Times. He had moved to that area only recently and was unfamiliar with the spot, which is a great white shark breeding ground.

The attack occurred around 10:20 am on Tuesday at Granite Rock (also called Granites), a popular surf break south of Streaky Bay. The victim was in the water with around a dozen other surfers when witnesses saw the attack take place.

“He grabbed him, pulled him back down, brought him back up, pulled him back down again,” one witness told 7 News.

Local surfer Jeff Schmucker raced out on a jet ski to find the victim. Instead, he found himself being circled by an approximately 4-meter-long great white shark that he presumed was the same animal that attacked the victim. Schmucker then found the remains of the man’s surfboard with a large bite mark.

Police quickly began looking for the missing surfer, deploying helicopters, boats, and jet skis to scan the water. The search has now entered its third day.

No, it's not a moon rock.

BY CHRIS IMPEY

After a journey of seven years and nearly 6.4 billion kilometers, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed gently in the Utah desert on the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, with a precious payload. The spacecraft brought back a sample from the asteroid Bennu.

Roughly 227gm of material collected from the 77.6 billion kg asteroid will help scientists learn about the formation of the solar system, including whether asteroids like Bennu include the chemical ingredients for life.

NASA’s mission was budgeted at $800 million and will end up costing around $1.16 billion for just under 255gm of sample. But is this the most expensive material known? Not even close.

I’m a professor of astronomy. I use Moon and Mars rocks in my teaching and have a modest collection of meteorites. I marvel at the fact that I can hold in my hand something that is billions of years old from billions of miles away.

A handful of asteroid works out to $4.7 million per gram or $132 million per ounce. That’s about 70,000 times the price of gold, which has been in the range of $60 to $70 per gram for the past few years.

The first extraterrestrial material returned to Earth came from the Apollo program. Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions brought back 382kg of lunar samples.

A relative bargain

The total price tag for the Apollo program, adjusted for inflation, was $257 billion. These Moon rocks were a relative bargain at $671,000 per gram, and of course, Apollo had additional value in demonstrating technologies for human spaceflight.

NASA is planning to bring samples back from Mars in the early 2030s to see if any contain traces of ancient life. The Mars Sample Return mission aims to return 30 sample tubes with a total weight of 450g. The Perseverance rover has already cached 10 of these samples.

However, costs have grown because the mission is complex, involving multiple robots and spacecraft. Bringing back the samples could run $11 billion, putting their cost at $24 million per gram, five times the unit cost of the Bennu samples.

Some space rocks are free

Some space rocks cost nothing. Almost 50 tons of free samples from the solar system rain down on the Earth every day. Most burn up in the atmosphere, but if they reach the ground they’re called meteorites, and most of those come from asteroids.

Meteorites can get costly because it can be difficult to recognize and retrieve them. Rocks all look similar unless you’re a geology expert.

Most meteorites are stony, called chondrites, and they can be bought online for as little as $15 per ounce (50 cents per gram). Chondrites differ from normal rocks in containing round grains called chondrules that formed as molten droplets in space at the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Iron meteorites are distinguished by a dark crust, caused by melting of the surface as they come through the atmosphere, and an internal pattern of long metallic crystals. They cost $1.77 per gram or even higher. Pallasites are stony-iron meteorites laced with the mineral olivine. When cut and polished, they have a translucent yellow-green color and can cost over $35 per gram.

More than a few meteorites have reached us from the Moon and Mars. Close to 600 have been recognized as coming from the Moon, and the largest, weighing 1.8kg, sold for a price that works out to be about $166 per gram.

Mars meteorites

About 175 meteorites are identified as having come from Mars. Buying one would cost about $388 per gram.

Researchers can figure out where meteorites come from by using their landing trajectories to project their paths back to the asteroid belt or comparing their composition with different classes of asteroids. Experts can tell where Moon and Mars rocks come from by their geology and mineralogy.

The limitation of these “free” samples is that there is no way to know where on the Moon or Mars they came from, which limits their scientific usefulness. Also, they start to get contaminated as soon as they land on Earth, so it’s hard to tell if any microbes within them are extraterrestrial.

Scarce elements

Some elements and minerals are expensive because they’re scarce. Simple elements in the periodic table have low prices. Per ounce, carbon costs one-third of a cent, iron costs 1 cent, aluminum costs 56 cents, and even mercury is less than a dollar. Silver is 50 cents per gram, and gold is $67 per gram.

Seven radioactive elements are extremely rare in nature and so difficult to create in the lab that they eclipse the price of NASA’s Mars Sample Return. Polonium-209, the most expensive of these, costs $49 billion per gram.

Gemstones can be expensive, too. High-quality emeralds are 10 times the price of gold, and white diamonds are 100 times the price of gold.

Some diamonds have a boron impurity that gives them a vivid blue hue. They’re found in only a handful of mines worldwide, and at $19 million per gram, they rival the cost of the upcoming Mars samples –- an ounce is 142 carats, but very few gems are that large.

The most expensive synthetic material is a tiny spherical “cage” of carbon with a nitrogen atom trapped inside. The atom inside the cage is extremely stable, so can be used for timekeeping. Endohedral fullerenes are made of carbon material that may be used to create extremely accurate atomic clocks. They can cost $141 million per gram.

Most expensive of all

Antimatter occurs in nature, but it’s exceptionally rare because any time an antiparticle is created, it quickly annihilates with a particle and produces radiation.

The particle accelerator at CERN can produces 10 million antiprotons per minute. That sounds like a lot, but at that rate, it would take billions of years and cost 3.5 x 10¹⁶ dollars to generate a gram (a billion billion (10¹⁸) dollars per ounce).

Warp drives as envisaged by “Star Trek,” which are powered by matter-antimatter annihilation, will have to wait.

This article originally appeared in The Conversation. Chris Impey is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.

We've got the details on all the ways to save on the latest cooling (and heating) tech from EcoFlow. The latest tech works with its line of portable power stations to get even more performance. Read on to find ways to save on all of them this week.

It’s that time of the year when online shoppers expect special savings from Amazon, aka Prime Day(s), and EcoFlow is in on the deals.

This week, you can save on the brand’s 3-in-1 electric refrigerator and its updated AC/heater. Additionally, if you’ve been looking for portable power stations, those are marked down, too.

Prime Days are July 11-12, but you can also save at EcoFlow through July 16 with the code JUNKIEPD.

Check out our brief rundowns on the GLACIER and WAVE 2 units below or our previous coverage for more details.

Shop EcoFlow Prime Day Deals

Deals on EcoFlow

WAVE 2 with Extra Battery

EcoFlow introduced this novel approach to cooling and heating with the WAVE2. It's wireless and works inside a small room, RV, van, or even a tent with no installation required. That said, it comes with exhaust duct adapters for more efficient climate control.

The WAVE 2 is 20% smaller than its predecessor and has 27% more power.

The compressor creates 5,100 BTU of cooling power that can lower a room's temperature by 18 degrees in 5 minutes. Likewise, it cranks 6,100 BTU heating to raise the temperature by 18 degrees in 5 minutes. It runs for as long as 8 hours of cooling using an add-on battery. Plugged into an EcoFlow portable power source (like the Delta Max or Delta 2) it can run up to 18 hours.

Lastly, it runs at a library-quiet sound level. A little white noise may just help you sleep more soundly.

Save at Amazon July 11-12, or at checkout on EcoFlow's site through July 16 with promo code JUNKIEPD.

Check Price at Amazon
Check Price at EcoFlow

GLACIER Portable Car Refrigerator, Cooler & Ice Maker with Extra Battery

This is a 3-in-1 refrigerator, ice maker, and power station on wheels. It can run up to 40 hours nonstop and has two compartments with dual temperature control so you can keep some things colder than others, like beverages vs. produce. The ice maker runs on top, separate from the internal storage.

There's also a companion app that lets you monitor and adjust the temperature and power usage.

This particular deal comes with an extra battery so you can charge one while the other continues to cool (and make ice).

Save at Amazon July 11-12, or at checkout on EcoFlow's site through July 16 with promo code JUNKIEPD.

Check Price at Amazon
Check Price at EcoFlow

Prime Day Deals

From Prime Deals to Deals of the Day, there are several ways to save on EcoFlow products at Amazon. Amazon's Prime Days are July 11-12.

Shop EcoFlow Prime Day Deals

This post is sponsored by ECOFLOW. Look for all its featured deals on portable power stations and more during Amazon Prime Days. If you miss the deals on Amazon, you can also save at EcoFlow’s site through July 16 by using our promo code JUNKIEPD.

The BLUETTI AC60 solar generator is a portable power station designed to handle rain, snow, sand, and dust.

The big appeal of solar generators is the ability to source power anywhere you go. One downside is that some portable power stations aren't designed to handle exposure to the elements.

But BLUETTI designed the AC60 to be water- and dust-resistant. The brand even launched a companion battery pack that can boost the generator's output and it shares the same performance in the elements, according to the brand.

Traditionally, a solar panel (or an array of them) collects energy and stores it in a portable power station. While solar panels can withstand an afternoon shower, many generators can't.

The AC60, however, can safely run while sitting on the beach or in fresh snow, according to BLUETTI.

Photo: Bluetti

BLUETTI AC60 Features

• Resists water and dust
• Power-saving battery management system
• Monitor status and control settings through display or app
• Compact size
• 6-year warranty

The AC60 is a 403Wh (lithium iron phosphate) battery that supplies 600W of power, which can be expanded up to 2,015 Wh with add-on batteries. Its footprint measures 11.3 x 8.5 inches, and it weighs less than 19 pounds.

The generator has a water-resistance rating of IP65, which means it can withstand water jets from any angle.

The outputs include two 120V AC outlets, two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, a 12V DC outlet, and a wireless charging pad. The inputs include AC, solar, and a cigarette lighter port.

How much is 600 W of output? That's enough to run a 60W mini fridge for five hours, charge a mobile phone 13 times, or run a lamp for more than 30 hours. Additionally, the generator can crank 1,200 W of lifting power, meaning it can run appliances like a coffeemaker or power drill for a short time.

BLUETTI made the AC60 with a fast-charge time of 45 minutes to go from 0% to 80%. From there, it tops off in 1.2 hours. Conversely, a solar panel (max 200 W) can recharge the generator in three hours or less, according to the brand.

The companion app lets you control the battery's charging and monitor its status and output levels.

Build Out More Power

The BLUETTI B80 battery pack works as a standalone power bank or an add-on to the AC60 for longer trips or power-hungry projects.

Designed as an expansion battery for the AC60, the B80 carries the same IP65 "weatherproof" rating. It also uses the same core battery to provide stable power.

A B80 battery has an 806W capacity. Linked to two B80 packs, the AC60 generator's power storage increases from 403 to 2,015 Wh. That's enough to power portable fridges, laptops, and mood lighting around your campsite or van setup, according to BLUETTI.

BLUETTI AC60 Specs

• Capacity: 403 Wh (18 Ah)
• Output: 600 W
• Recharge: AC cable 1.2-1.7 hours (600W turbocharging); solar 2.5-3 hours
• Operating temperature: -4 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit
• Life cycles: 3,000-plus cycles (to 80% original capacity)
• Dimensions (L x W x D): 11.3” × 8.5” × 9.7″
• Weight: 18.9 lbs.
• Price: $699 each for AC60 and B80 battery pack

All-Weather Power

BLUETTI built the AC60 solar generator to act as a power companion on your outdoor adventures. The brand says it can withstand rain, snow, sand, and dust.

That means you should be able to leave your AC60 solar generator outside without fear of an afternoon shower or dust storm ruining your power supply. For longer trips or bigger projects, a B80 battery pack (or two) should give your generator a boost.

If you’ve been looking for a small, portable power station that works in the same conditions you play, the AC60 may be the solution. Check out BLUETTI’s website to learn more about its function and performance.

Early-Bird Savings

As with many BLUETTI launches, there will be an early-bird sale from May 16 to 31. The AC60 portable generator and the B80 battery pack will be $599 each, usually $699.

While the AC60 is made to work with the weatherproof B80, it can also be bundled with the PV120 solar panel for $983, or the PV200 solar panel for $1,168. During the early-bird sale, those pairings will cost $883 and $1,048, respectively.

This article is sponsored by BLUETTI. Check out the AC60 and other portable power stations.

This Valentine's Day, why not skip the usual flowers and chocolates and consider portable power as a symbol of things to come?

Maybe that's a stretch, or maybe it's just the kind of practical gift your favorite someone would love. Either way, BLUETTI is having a sale on its wide selection of solar generators and power stations from Feb. 6 through February 20. It's a prime time to save on powering any upcoming cookouts, campouts, or road trips and enjoying the peace of mind provided by a home power backup.

The BLUETTI lineup

BLUETTI has been making portable power devices for more than a decade. It continues to grow its lineup with a wider range of power output and modular designs that let people build a setup to meet their needs. Below, you'll find new additions to the brand's line of power offerings as well as new ways to use them. They can connect to your cellphone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to act as a remote control or real-time monitor. BLUETTI also offers a warranty on all of its power devices.

Portable solar generator

Carry-along power options mean these can come along on road trips, campouts, and around the house or workshop.

The BLUETTI EB3A, EB55, and EB70S units can charge your cellphone, walkie-talkie, camera, lights, and more. They provide a way to stay connected to the outside world and bring along a few of the comforts of home.

They range from 268 Wh up to 716 Wh and can be paired with the brand's solar panels for recharging.

Versatile power monster

The AC200MAX has 16 outlets to run several appliances and devices simultaneously for hours. These include the built-in 30A NEMA TT-30 outlet and a 12V 30A super-powerful DC outlet made with RV enthusiasts in mind.

It also has a 2,200W PSW inverter and 2,048Wh capacity to fulfill most power demands. If you need more, it can connect with a B230 or B300 expansion battery to increase its capacity and power (up to 6,144 Wh).

There are seven ways to recharge — AC, dual AC, AC plus solar, solar, car, generator, and lead battery) and the LiFePO4 battery specs say it has 3,500-plus life cycles to 80%.

Expandable power centers

Launched in 2022, the AC500 quickly became one of the brand's biggest models. To unleash more power, the AC500 base power station can be paired with the B300S to increase its capacity from 3,072 to 18,432 Wh. The combo boosts the 8,000 input rate (PV+AC) to charge from 0% to 80% in one hour.

Similarly, the AC300 is also modular and can work with the B300 for up to a 12,288Wh capacity, as well as a 3,000W PSW inverter for running high-load devices with less worry.

These combos can recharge in six different ways: AC, solar, car, generator, lead-acid battery, and dual charging (AC and AC plus solar). They're options as gift ideas for outdoor enthusiasts and DIYers alike.

Home backup power

Equipped with 5,100Wh capacity and a 2,000 or 3,000W PSW inverter, respectively, the EP500 and EP500Pro are both all-in-one power stations designed for home charging. But, according to the brand, they can work for off-grid power too, and you can transport them easily via their wheels.

The brand's Smart Home Panel lets you monitor its role in your home's grid with a 24/7 UPS function for keeping essential appliances running during a power failure. Flexible recharging helps the EP500 stay on.

Accessible energy

BLUETTI makes solar panels with five different wattages, from 68 to 420 W, which are part of the model names: PV68, PV120, PV200, PV350, and PV420. The PV68 and PV420 models are the latest additions to a range of panels.

BLUETTI says setting them up with the right tilt can help capture the most solar rays for intake, up to a listed 23.4% high conversion rate, to feed your devices throughout the day.

The brand credits the panels' use of monocrystalline solar cells and multilayered ETFE "to ensure better light transmittance, higher efficiency, and longer lifespan."

Social getaways

As part of its BLUETTILOVE campaign, the brand is running a social media giveaway during its Valentine’s Day sale.

There are two options to participate: You can upload photos and share your sweetest memories or love story, or post an anonymous SMS expressing your affection.

BLUETTI is offering an EB3A portable power station, a PV68 solar panel, or $20 coupons to lucky winners. Check the website during the sale to learn more. Shop BLUETTI

The North Face Summit Series uses a bevy of technologies that emphasize breathability and warmth during heart-pumping efforts.

Cold-weather aerobic pursuits test the limits of gear designed to keep you warm and dry. The North Face Summit Series has new apparel with new approaches to overcoming those limits for a more comfortable year in the wild.

Below is an overview of traditional layering philosophy and how recent innovations have shaken up that norm. Then, we go over key apparel pieces from The North Face Summit Series that showcase the brand's latest tech and see how they can work as a layering system for cold-weather use.

Buy Now

How to Layer for Winter

The conventional wisdom for winter layering is to create an apparel kit or system. Every piece works together to keep the wearer comfortable across a wide range of temperatures, as well as dry with changing weather conditions.

Proper layering will provide what you need for the most inclement weather, and pare down appropriately as you need — say, as your core temp rises with high-output activity. For example, skinning up, you'll be making much of your own warmth, so you can stick with a base layer and keep other layers packed. But once you've reached the summit and cooled off a bit, you'll want to add a wind-protective shell — and maybe an insulating mid-layer for the chilly descent.

Choosing your cold-weather layers will take time to learn if you’re new to them.

The weather forecast is an important first step, but only one factor. Conditions on a mountain ascent can take you from shady wooded areas to long bouts of exposure to sun and wind. You need to dress for all of those conditions — and then some.

Beyond the weather, you should have an idea of how an activity will tax your body. Do you typically run hot or cold? Do you sweat a lot? Will this be a casual trail hike through the woods or a hands-on-knees lung-buster at altitude?

Besides comfort, carrying the right layers also means being prepared for conditions changing for the worse or an emergency. If things go sideways on a backcountry adventure, having the right layer can help you ride out a storm or mild injury while waiting for rescue.

Layer-by-Layer Basics

Understanding the basics of layering is a key component in staying comfortable — and safe — during winter adventures. In short, you wear three layers to stay dry and warm, and each serves a different function. We go over some layering examples later on, but here are the key points to understand.

Base Layers

Also called "next-to-skin layers," these close-fitting garments retain some body heat while wicking away sweat. Active users should prioritize wicking and let the mid-layers do most of the insulating.

Staying dry is of primary importance when choosing layers. If sweat starts pooling, your body will start cooling, which works against the insulating layers. Your base layer will provide a nominal measure of insulation, but the right layer can do wonders for moisture management, which is the bedrock of the entire layering system.

Pro tip: Use quarter- or full-zip base layers to dump heat during max aerobic efforts.

Mid-layers

Insulation layers can emphasize breathability (active insulation) or warmth (static insulation). This category has the widest range of options.

Lighter insulation, like a grid fleece, traps warmth while allowing body heat (and moisture) to escape through the channels of the grid. Down or synthetic insulation stuffed into baffles will trap body heat for greater warmth.

The development of active insulation mid-layers has shaken up this category in recent years. Jackets built with exposed insulation can make them lighter and breathable for use in high-output activities. And they include a light, breathable shell fabric to protect against light rain or snow. Such jackets allow the user to enjoy a greater range of temperatures before they need to dump heat or add another layer.

For hikes and moderate skiing in dry conditions, you may choose to wear a breathable, active mid-layer with moderate insulation, and stash a wind or rain shell in a pocket. For slower efforts at altitudes that will lead to exposure and downtime, consider a similar setup for the way up and a heavy down puffy with wind and weather repellency for maximum warmth.

Outer Layers

Shell layers protect from the elements (and keep insulating layers dry). A softshell wind layer in the summer won't protect against the rain but will allow perspiration to escape. A waterproof hardshell comes with varied breathability performance for use in rain, snow, and windy conditions.

If you've combined more modern layers with older ones, you may have found yourself limited by outdated apparel. Wearing a new, more technical base layer that wicks moisture away from your body into a not-so-breathable puffy will likely leave the jacket soaked in no time — and have you cooling off soon thereafter.

Instead, an outer layer imbued with the latest in materials science will perform across a greater range of temperatures. And it can help you adapt to the changing climate without the necessity of changing layers.

As long as it's wicking and warming, you get a little more wiggle room when it's time to stop and dump heat or layer up.

The North Face Summit Series: Built for Layering

Designed as a layering system, the Summit Series manages heat, moisture, and modularity during high-output activities. The North Face made this collection with big-mountain efforts in mind and packed in its new performance innovations to add warmth and drop weight. Those benefits are now tuned for each specific activity with features to enhance your climb or snowsport, according to TNF.

The brand designed its Summit Series with a modular approach, making base layers and mid-layers for all activities. Now, the collection's outer layers are "tuned for activity" with specific features. This efficiency can save space in a multisport athlete's closet.

To further build out the collection, it now includes footwear, from fully rigid double boots to scrambling shoes built for technical approaches. The same Summit Series tech also trickles down to accessories and equipment like gloves, backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, and more.

The Summit Series is what athletes Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison wore on their first descent of the Lhotse couloir and what Kit Deslauriers wore as she completed her quest to become the first to ski the world's highest Seven Summits. Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, Alex Honnold, and the rest of the Queen Maud Land expedition team also brought Summit Series with them to Antarctica.

And editors came away impressed after testing the Summit Series Advanced Mountain Kit, saying that "when the gear is right, you forget it exists." The Advanced Mountain Kit technology can now be found in the new Summit Series line.

Summit Series: Learn the Layers

A good cold-weather kit should keep you dry from the weather on the outside, but also dry on the inside by allowing perspiration to escape. There are a few different kit combinations to achieve this depending on the intended activity.

To help navigate the Summit Series apparel, the brand is changing up the names of its layers. Mid-layers are named after routes and subpeaks (Casaval, a ridge on Mt. Shasta), while outer layers are named after peaks and mountains specifically relevant to the intended activity (i.e. Pumori).

The North Face Base Layers

Summit Series Pro base layers prioritize moving moisture from the body. High-output adventurers may choose a DotKnit base layer under a mid-layer, or use a heavier FUTUREFLEECE layer next to skin in colder conditions. For lower-output activities in the cold, DotKnit and FUTUREFLEECE can be paired for a mix of moisture-wicking warmth.

DotKnit: Dotknit comes in two weights — 120 for less-frigid adventures and 200 for the coldest days on the mountain.

These base layers emphasize moving sweat away from the body and drying faster. The DotKnit construction uses hydrophibic (next to skin) and hydrophilic yarns (face side) to actively pull moisture through the engineered ports in the fabric according to TNF.

The North Face says this unique base layer tech outperforms those using solely traditional synthetics or wool. Those materials aim to trap and pull moisture into the garment, rather than disperse it, for faster drying. When a base layer holds moisture, it can be uncomfortable and increase the risk of hypothermia if the aerobic output is not maintained.

The North Face Mid-layers

The brand offers mid-layers to meet different user preferences and more dynamic levels of exertion. The right mid-layer (or lack thereof) lets users determine the range of warmth they want.

FUTUREFLEECE: This is available in two weights, FUTUREFLEECE and FUTUREFLEECE LT, with LT being lighter. It's TNF’s take on a standard grid fleece, with octa-yarns, which have hollow sections to hold warmth. The lighter garment also uses a full-loop construction for a softer feel against the skin.

The North Face recommends FUTUREFLEECE as a heavyweight base layer or a light mid-layer for use with a lighter jacket.

Ventrix: This tech debuted in 2017 and continues in several cold-weather jackets for its ability to work with a wide range of temperatures and move with the user in motion. The outer shell fabric and liner aim for breathability to prevent becoming a barrier to moisture released by the unique “vented” stretch insulation.

When a Ventrix jacket is flexed from walking or skiing, the vertical and horizontal openings in the stretch insulation open wider and vent moisture faster.

The North Face Outer Layers

Cloud Down: This provides more warmth with less bulk. The North Face uses a new “discontinuous baffle” construction with 800-fill ProDown that results in a greater down fill weight from less material. The brand says the new garments will weigh 20% less while also adding roughly 20% in down weight.

FUTURELIGHT: The brand's most advanced waterproof-breathable technology emphasizes venting and breathability while on the move. An active mid-layer beneath it should be the main insulator.

50/50 Down: This down insulation is constructed to be breathable during aerobic use. Each down-filled baffle is sewn individually to a breathable face fabric as well as spaced out to allow room between them.

The idea is that when the wearer flexes, the baffles are compressed closer together yet allow airflow in between. The North Face also designed 50/50 Down to prevent the down from shifting or leaking out and avoid the use of down-proof materials that then block the insulation's breathability.

The outer jackets are less nuanced but differ in the range of insulation and expected output. The Pumori Down Parka prioritizes warmth over weight savings during slower, colder activities, or can be thrown on while taking breaks, belaying, or transitioning.

The Breithorn 50/50 Down Hoodie and Casaval Hybrid jackets both work for high-output use but allow the user to choose between down or synthetic insulation for their activities.

Now, let's get into a few mission-specific examples of how Summit Series layers can be worn as a system.

Sport-Specific Layering

Mountaineering

Base: The Pro Tights and Crew layers use DotKnit, which leverages double-knit yarns and holes in its face fabric to create space for moisture to move away from the body. The construction has raglan sleeves, underarm gussets for mobility, and minimized seams with overlocked stitching for reinforcement.

Mid: The FUTUREFLEECE Full-Zip Hoodie is a slim-fit, full-zip hoodie using the brand's FUTUREFLEECE fabric for a lighter and warmer mid-layer. The fleece interior uses full-loop construction with yarns that the brand claims retain heat. The idea is to get the most warmth from the least material.

The shoulders are seamless to avoid stacking seams through layers and chafing under a backpack. Lastly, a concealed-zip chest pocket holds an internal pouch.

Outer: The Pumori FUTURELIGHT Bibs and Jacket are waterproof, windproof shells that emphasize breathability. The fabric is soft, so your ascents shouldn't be tainted by a series of swishing sounds. High-wear spots are reinforced with Spectra ripstop, and both pieces have an articulated fit for mobility.

For mountaineering, the Chamlang FUTURELIGHT Jacket and Pants shells include harness-compatible hand pockets and underarm vents with AquaGuard zips and softer touches like a brushed-tricot chin guard and collar lining. The pants are reinforced in areas prone to wear.

The Chamlang kit is also the most pared down feature set in the Summit Series and is an option for climbers who still want the most technical equipment available with less fuss.

To top it all off, the Pumori Down Parka is stuffed with 800-fill ProDown in the offset Cloud Down baffle construction for warmth without all the bulk. Both hood and hem can be adjusted to keep air out. This is a big insulating layer that mountaineers will likely wear only during rest breaks or belaying.

Alpine Climbing

Base: With sedentary time likely, climbers may prefer to use the heavier FUTUREFLEECE Full-Zip Hoodie next to the skin to keep their core warm.

Mid: Depending on conditions, alpine climbers with a heavier base layer may choose to wear just the waterproof-breathable Torre Egger FUTURELIGHT Jacket as a light, protective shell during climbs.

Outer: For alpine climbing, the Torre Egger FUTURELIGHT Jacket is a waterproof, windproof shell that emphasizes breathability. It has underarm gussets made from lighter-weight fabric for breathability. A women's-specific fit is also available.

The targeted use of YKK AquaGuard FlatKnit zips is used to slim its profile and allow flexibility. Likewise, the Torre Egger FUTURELIGHT Pant protects its three-layer FUTURELIGHT shell fabric with high-denier kick patches and internal cuffs to resist abrasion and puncture. These pants also include a narrower leg opening to accommodate alpine boots.

Charging summits or off the ice wall, athletes can throw on the Pumori Down Parka to stay warm at high altitudes.

Snowsports

Base: Again, the Pro Tights and Crew layers with DotKnit come in 120 and 200 weights for warmth with an emphasis on wicking.

Mid: Skiers and riders can reach for another layer of wicking insulation without the bulk. That's where the FUTUREFLEECE Hoodie comes in. The fleece's full-loop construction and octa-yarns offer a high warmth-to-weight ratio, according to the brand.

Outer: For Big Mountain (backcountry or sidecountry), heavy weather conditions, and freestyle, The North Face built the Verbier Kit. The Verbier FUTURELIGHT Jacket sports a drop-tail hem with an internal cord-lock adjustment and two big chest pockets with AquaGuard zips and internal gear loops.

The Verbier FUTURELIGHT Bib uses a hybrid suspender construction with inner tab mounts for using the drop-seat while the suspenders are still attached. Targeted areas include a stretch-woven upper bib and back panel for movement and breathability. Lastly, there are inner-leg vents with water-resistant zips.

Backcountry/Sidecountry riders or high aerobic activity athletes can reach for the Stimson FUTURELIGHT Jacket for its articulated shape, four-way stretch, and mini powder skirt system. It also has two internal mesh drop pockets for skins or goggles.

Likewise, the Summit Stimson FUTURELIGHT Pant is reinforced with Spectra ripstop in the knees along with kick patches. The left thigh pocket stashes things behind a YKK AquaGuard zipper and internal gear loop. The women's-specific style includes a higher rise to rest on the waist.

Summit for Yourself

Even if you're not heading to the windiest or snowiest heights this winter, these layers can allow greater flexibility in how you fend off the cold. Even modest efforts will crank out sweat that needs to escape — ideally without you losing body heat.

Start with one layer. See if it does more to keep you dry and warm, and then you can dial the rest of your layering system. From there, you might want to pick up more Summit Series layers for the full effect.

Spending a little bit more on a jacket that can perform during a wider range of activities is still more affordable than a separate jacket for each occasion. (And it takes up less closet space.)

Buy Now

Withstand 10,000-watt surges and power lights, appliances, and personal electronics off the grid.

‏The powerful duo of the BLUETTI AC500 power station can support up to six B300S companion batteries to offer an 18,432Wh capacity.

Building off past models, this new power station and battery pack represent the brand’s best output performance.

This heavyweight, modular power station offers several AC and USB outlets, and wireless device charging pads. Plus, users can recharge it in seven different ways.

Shop BLUETTI AC500 & B300S Power Supplies

Powerful duo

Last year, BLUETTI launched a modular solar power station (AC300) and LFP battery module (B300).

Now comes more powerful successors, the AC500 Expandable Power Station and B300S Battery Pack. Each AC500 power station can scale up with as many as six B300S batteries for a combined 18,432Wh of power. That’s enough to power several appliances through a power blackout.

Combined, the two units can work together as a home backup power station or a portable power station. It can also be used to run an off-grid home, work as an emergency backup, or just save you money on electric bills. Campers, RVers, and van lifers may find it provides enough power to use for multiple days before recharging.

In remote locales, where power interruptions are more common, the AC500 can provide some peace of mind. It boasts an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system to prevent data loss or hardware damage during a power outage. It can detect the blackout and start supplying power within 20 milliseconds.

BLUETTI AC500

• AC500 is modular and compatible with B300 and B300S battery packs (18,432Wh with six batteries)
• A 5,000W inverter (10,000W surge)
• 7 ways to recharge
• Built-in advanced BMS and LFP battery for prolonged lifespan
• Split Phase Bonding can connect two AC500s to double performance (requires Fusion Box Pro, sold separately)
• Monitor and control with the BLUETTI app

Scale up

BLUETTI explains the power station’s inverter uses pure sine wave for 5,000W continuous AC output and can handle up to a 10,000W surge.

The AC500 has no built-in battery, and the B300S battery pack has a 3,072Wh capacity. However, you can scale up with six battery packs, but the Fusion Box Pro accessory (sold separately) also lets you connect two AC500s. This boosts the output to 240V/6,000W and the capacity to 36,864Wh.

That’s enough juice to power essential home appliances for days or weeks. Add solar panels to the mix and you flirt with power independence at home or in your remote cabin.

In remote locales, where power interruptions are more common, the AC500 can provide some peace of mind. It boasts an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system to prevent data loss or hardware damage during a power outage. It can detect the blackout and start supplying power within 20 milliseconds.

Charging Specs

The brand uses a LiFePO4 battery for long-term durability and claims 3,500+ charging cycles to 80% of its original capacity. The brand estimates it will hold up for 10 years of use. This sets it apart from other power stations and banks using lithium-ion batteries.

The AC500 can be charged by AC, solar, generator, lead-acid battery, and dual- or triple-charging methods.

BLUETTI has no official charge times listed for solar and dual-AC charging yet. But together, the plug-in wall outlet and solar panels can charge the AC500 as fast as an hour (max. 8,000W input).

Example lifespans powering different devices follow:

• Laptop, 58W, 270 hours
• Refrigerator, 360W, 43.5 hours
• Coffee maker, 1,000W, 15.7 hours
• Air conditioner, 1,800W, 8.7 hours

BLUETTI AC500 Portable Power Station Specs

• Capacity: 3,072Wh; scales up to 18,432Wh max with additional batteries
• Scalability: Accommodates up to six batteries
• AC outlets: 3 x 120V/20A outlets; 1 x 120V/30A L14-30; 1 x 120V/30A TT-30; 1 x 120V/50A NEMA14-50
• USB-C port: 2 x 100W
• USB-A port: 2 x 5V/3A; 2 x 18W USB-A
• Wireless charge pads: 2 x 15W max (for each)
• Weight: 66.21 lbs.

Be one of the first

The stations come with a 3-year warranty, 100% protection, and 10+ years of service time.

The brand has been in the portable power industry for more than 10 years and aims for “green energy storage solutions for both indoor and outdoor use while delivering an exceptional eco-friendly experience for everyone and the world.”

If you’re looking for the latest in power solutions, check out the all-new BLUETTI AC500 and B300S combo.

Shop BLUETTI AC500 & B300S Power Supplies

This post is sponsored by BLUETTI. Find out more about its portable power stations and battery packs.

The newest addition to the PRO TREK family is designed with sustainability and climbing in mind.

Buy PRO TREK PRG-340

The case, back, band, and rotating bezel of the PRO TREK PRG-340 are all made using renewable biomass plastics, in line with the brand's commitment to sustainability. Using raw materials made from castor seeds and corn helps to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Triple sensor tech

Triple sensor technology allows for high-accuracy readings of barometric pressure, temperature, and altitude. All of these stats are easily accessible via their own individual non-slip buttons, so you have all the information you need at your fingertips.

Dual LCD display

The LCD display on this model is split into dual sections to make it easier to read. The graphic indicators for the compass sit at the top of the screen while the time and various measurements are displayed on the bottom.

Solar stability

The Tough Solar System helps ensure that your necessary functions don't fail you on long stretches without a charge. Key functions will stay operational for up to seven months with minimal sunlight exposure.

Feature highlights

This watch has many features, including some of our favorites below:

• LED Super Illuminator lighting
• Bolder fonts for better readability
• Water resistance up to 100m
• Alarms, stopwatch, timer, and more

Rotating bezel

The inclusion of a rotating bezel and moveable lug construction allows for simple map reading and orientation. The watch can lie flat, which makes working with a paper map easier.

Casio PRO TREK PRG-340 conclusions

This Casio design is made sustainably and includes everything you need for climbing mountains or for everyday wear. It is definitely worth considering for your next adventure.

Buy PRO TREK PRG-340

When it comes to work gloves, I need a quality pair. From home improvement projects to cleaning boulders to woodworking, I need a pair of gloves that serves me well and actually fits. For the last couple of years, I’ve had several pairs of gloves to choose from for the task at hand. However, after testing the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves, I might have found my forever pair.

The Ironclad Work Glove fit

I am always skeptical of trying new gloves, specifically because few pairs actually fit well. I have relatively small hands and short fingers, so most gloves are baggy at the fingertips or have too much wiggle room in the palm. I ordered the Ironclad General Utility Work Glove in extra small.

The fingers fit well with less than a quarter-inch of space, except for the thumb, which had nearly a half-inch of space. The room in the thumb was not problematic for me but could be for some. The tops of the index, pointer, and ring fingers felt square initially but broke in a bit after time. There was a slight air bubble in the palm as well.

Overall, the fit was better than most gloves I’ve found, and my rating of this pair is missing just half of a star only because of the loose-fitting palm and too-spacious thumb.

Review

On a cold day outdoors, I spent nearly nine hours in the Ironclad work gloves, preparing an area for rock climbing, working with saws, and with wire brushes. Despite the chilly 30°F temps and off-and-on rain, the gloves kept my hands surprisingly warm and allowed for excellent breathability.

The thermoplastic cuff nestled nicely around my small wrists and the impact protection Ironclad logo on the knuckles came in handy when working around tough boulders. My hands were exhausted after a hard day’s work. Still, the impact protection and synthetic leather palm and fingertip reinforcements helped me push through. They allowed me to continue working with a saw throughout the day.

The Ironclad work gloves also performed well while moving firewood and rocks. They excelled at more delicate work like mounting hardware onto softwoods, an essential part of installing frames onto some of my paintings. The snug fit allowed for excellent dexterity when working with small hardware and wires. Between tasks, I was able to throw the gloves in the washer with my regular laundry without concern of shrinkage, a benefit that gave me peace of mind when taking it from the muddy forest to inside an art studio.

Lastly, one could easily overlook one of my favorite features of the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves: the TPR cuff puller is a piece of contoured plastic at the end of the gloves that allowed me to pull the gloves on easily by providing extra grip. Every glove should have this feature.

The buy

Before purchasing be sure to measure your hand and fingers appropriately for the best fit. Once you have your measurements, head to the size chart provided by Ironclad, and determine the appropriate size for you.

From there, just a few clicks and an MSRP of about $16 will land a pair of Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves on your doorstep.

See the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves on Amazon

See the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves on Walmart

For those who work with their hands, work gloves are a must. They protect your hands from hot and cold surfaces, abrasions, splinters, chemicals, and more. Depending on what you do, you need a different type of glove and specific features. From light gardening to metalworking and woodworking, we've done the research, tested, and taken a deep dive into the world of work gloves. Here is our comprehensive list and buying guide to the best work gloves for men.

Best heavy-duty: Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves GUG

• Knuckle reinforcements
• Leather palm patches
• Thermoplastic cuff
• Spandex construction
• Model: GUG-03-M
• Weight: 3.2 ounces

For an all-around heavy-duty glove for any job, look no further than the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves GUG. I usually use work gloves to move debris, build frames, mount paintings, install hardware, and accomplish other projects both at home and outdoors. These became my go-to gloves, and when I do put holes in them, I will hands-down get another pair.

Spandex makes this glove stretchy and breathable, while leather reinforcements and patches protect your hands from abrasions, cuts, and impact. Knuckle reinforcements also line the back of the hand, which was great for me when working outdoors. Lastly, the fit of this glove was perfect. It’s hard for me to find work gloves for men that provide a snug fit, but Ironclad’s extra small size fits my hands perfectly. Read the in-depth review here.

See the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves on Amazon

See the Ironclad General Utility Work Gloves on Walmart

Best medium-duty: Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove with Safety Cuff

• All leather
• Safety cuff
• Suede palm patches
• Model: A518-BROWN-S
• Weight: 4.8 ounces

When it comes to a glove for construction and medium-duty work, the Carhartt Men’s Safety 5 Work Glove with Safety Cuff is tough to beat. While testing this glove, I moved wood and tree limbs, rocks, and other debris after a storm.

With most all-leather gloves, dexterity is limited, and I found that to be the case for this glove as well. This style runs a bit large, so order a size down for a snug fit — Carhartt’s small sizing was still a bit large for me. Otherwise, this is a solid, hardworking pair of all-leather gloves. The leather keeps your hands warm on cooler days, and the safety cuff protects your wrist when working with wood and other materials. Read the in-depth review here.

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Amazon

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Carhartt

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Dungarees

Most impact-resistant: Mechanix Wear: M-Pact Leather Work Gloves For Men

• Breathable TrekDry on the back of the hand
• Plastic safety cuff
• All-leather palm
• Impact protection throughout the glove
• Model: LMP-75-008
• Weight: 5.6 ounces

A crowd-favorite for impact resistance is the Mechanix Wear: M-Pact Leather Work Gloves. These are some of the best impact-resistant, heavy-duty work gloves on the market. Whether you’re working with a jackhammer, a chainsaw, or other tools, these gloves will help keep your hands from tiring.

The M-Pact glove’s palm is leather, giving you grip and protecting your hands from hot or cold, abrasion, and chemicals. We all know leather gets hot though, so the back of the glove is a breathable fabric to help keep your hands cool.

See the Mechanix Wear M-Pact Leather Work Gloves on Amazon

See the Mechanix Wear M-Pact Leather Work Gloves on Walmart

See the Mechanix Wear M-Pact Leather Work Gloves on Lowes

Best for cold weather: Youngstown Work Glove 03-3450-80-L

• Blended construction
• Waterproof membrane
• Non-slip reinforced palm
• Microfleece liner
• Thinsulate
• Terrycloth brow wipe on the thumb
• Model: 03-3450-80-L
• Weight: 4 ounces

Winter weather often affects our hands. Trying to work with fingers you can’t feel just isn’t going to cut it.

The Youngstown Glove 03-3450-80-L is a versatile winter work glove for cold days and hard work. On the exterior, you’ll find a terrycloth brow wiper on top of the thumb for getting sweat off your face, a cuff for keeping out dirt, and a palm reinforced with non-slip material.

Within the glove, you’ll find a microfleece liner for exceptional warmth and a layer of Thinsulate with a waterproof membrane to keep out moisture and wind. These waterproof work gloves for men are versatile and capable of accompanying you to most heavy-duty, cold, or wet jobs. Our only word of caution is that they lack impact resistance, which could become an issue for jobs with repetitive shock loading. Here are some of the top anti-vibration gloves on the market. Be sure to check them out, as well.

See the Youngstown Work Glove 03-3450-80-L on Amazon

See the Youngstown Work Glove 03-3450-80-L on Walmart

Most budget-friendly: KAYGO KG11PB Work Gloves For Men, 12 Pairs

• Polyurethane coating
• Polyester construction
• Seamless stitching
• Light duty
• Model: KG11PB
• Weight: 1.04 ounces

When it comes to affordability, the KAYGO KG11PB shines. This set of 12 polyester gloves is excellent for gardening and general home improvement. The polyester construction gives you superior grip in wet or oily conditions. Additionally, the polyurethane coating across the palm and fingers increase that grip.

KAYGO’s work and gardening gloves are not for big jobs, nor are they cut-resistant. That said, rarely will you find such a budget-friendly pair, much less one that offers versatility in light-duty jobs. If you’re purchasing gloves for a whole team, this set is an excellent choice.

See the KAYGO KG11PB Work Gloves on Amazon

See the KAYGO KG11PB Work Gloves on Walmart

Best light-duty: Carhartt Men's Work Flex Spandex Work Glove

• 100% spandex
• Breathable
• Elastic cuff
• Snug fit
• Model: A547-BLK-S
• Weight: 2.4 ounces

When it comes to workwear, one of the first brands that come to mind is Carhartt. Carhartt is well-loved, and rightfully so, for crafting thoughtful, durable workwear for men and women. For light-duty jobs and gardening, the Carhartt Men’s Work Flex Spandex Work Glove is a great choice.

Textured, breathable spandex comprises the entire glove for additional grip and the upper hand in slick environments. The synthetic material also provides impressive dexterity and some sensitivity. Additionally, the cuff keeps out dirt, so your hands stay clean, and the snug fit protects you from abrasions.

See the Carhartt Men's Work Flex Spandex Work Glove on Amazon

See the Carhartt Men's Work Flex Spandex Work Glove on Carhartt

Most versatile: Dewalt DPG20M All Purpose Glove

• Terrycloth brow wipe
• All-leather palm
• Spandex back
• Safety cuff
• Neoprene detailing
• Model: DPG20M
• Weight: 1.6 ounces

For a versatile and breathable glove for warmer weather, the Dewalt DPG20M All Purpose Glove is an excellent choice for medium-duty work. Starting from the bottom, the cuff provides a secure fit and keeps out debris as you work. An all-leather palm offers protection from abrasion and cuts, while the spandex back allows breathability and keeps your hands cool. Lastly, a terry cloth brow wipe will enable you to remove sweat as you get down to business.

On the palm, you will find additional padding for impact absorption. Between the fingers, neoprene allows for extra dexterity and working precisely. The Dewalt All Purpose is excellent for mid-grade, versatile work. This glove was made to serve many needs.

See the Dewalt DPG20M All Purpose Glove on Amazon

See the Dewalt DPG20M All Purpose Glove on Walmart

Best for gardening: Pine Tree Tools Bamboo Working Gloves

• Bamboo construction
• Snug fit
• Great for gardening
• Model: FBA_784672972512
• Weight: 1.66 ounces

When it comes to gardening, protection from weeds, thorns, and mud is a must. However, for delicate tasks like caring for plants, you still need dexterity and sensitivity. The Pine Tree Tools Bamboo Working Gloves are great for gardening because they provide excellent grip, movement, and sensitivity due to their bamboo construction.

These snug-fit gloves should feel like a second skin and also allow you to interact with your smartphone, unlike most other gloves available. While not ideal for heavy-duty jobs, they excel where dexterity and sensitivity are essential.

See the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo Working Gloves on Amazon

See the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo Working Gloves on Walmart

Best all-leather: OZERO Flex Grip Leather Work Gloves

• All leather
• Reinforced palm patch
• Elastic cuff
• Model: DEH104014-A
• Weight: 5.6 ounces

If your work demands an all-leather work glove, the OZERO Flex Grip Leather Work Gloves are an excellent 100% cowhide glove with a reinforced grip. The Gunn cut makes the product comfortable and dexterous. The reinforced palm provides additional grip when you need it.

This glove comes complete with an elastic cuff to keep dirt and debris out. And when it comes to abrasion and cut-resistant gloves, this pair from OZERO is the answer.

See the OZERO Flex Grip Leather Work Gloves on Amazon

See the OZERO Flex Grip Leather Work Gloves on Walmart
 

Most durable: Ironclad Ranchworx Work Gloves RWG2

• Goatskin leather
• Kevlar reinforcements
• Terrycloth brow wipe
• Impact-resistant
• Thermoplastic cuff
• Model: RWG2-04-L
• Weight: 1.76 ounces

Durable is the Ironclad Ranchworx Work Gloves RWG2’s middle name. Okay, not technically true, but when you look at how well-constructed these gloves are, it’s easy to believe.

The glove starts with a mostly goatskin leather construction, providing water and abrasion resistance and durability. Next, padding provides impact protection. A terrycloth brow wipe lines the thumb for sweat management, and Kevlar reinforcements add unmatched durability.  Additionally, a quick-adjust cuff ensures a snug fit and keeps out debris.

See the Ironclad Ranchworx Work Gloves RWG2 on Amazon

See the Ironclad Ranchworx Work Gloves RWG2 on Walmart

Why trust us

I've been a farm kid and lived in rural towns most of my life. My father and his brothers were all handy and had ongoing projects. My uncle is a contractor and had us helping him build houses by age eight. I've never shied away from hard work and have always been one to make things by hand.

I still work a lot outdoors, cleaning property for my family and helping my roommate prepare land for businesses. Additionally, I spend a significant amount of time preparing rock climbing areas for visitors.

All in all, I need a glove that works as hard as I do, and I have a lifetime of experience putting holes in gloves.

Who this is for

This buying guide is for the casual gardener, the serious woodworker, those who wear gloves daily for work, and everyone in between. Whether you are in your gloves over 40 hours a week or a couple of times a year, you deserve a pair of comfortable and functional work gloves.

If you need work gloves, no matter the task at hand, this guide is for you.

How we picked

Selecting our collection of work gloves involved market research, reading hundreds of reviews, and testing a few pairs out ourselves. When curating a list of items for our buying guides, we focus on ensuring there are products for everyone and every need.

When it comes to work gloves, there is a wide variety of needs, so we made sure there is something for woodworkers, construction workers, gardeners, and other users of gloves. Additionally, we try to ensure each product on our list is high-quality and durable.

How we tested

When testing gloves, I initially used them to move debris and firewood outside as their first and primary test. I then tested each pair with time spent preparing rock climbing areas. The final tests included helping my roommate with some woodworking and mounting some of my paintings into their custom float frames.

The variety in testing allowed me to closely examine these gloves' agility, durability, water resistance, and impact resistance.

Features to look for in work gloves

Materials

Work gloves are often of leather, canvas, or other durable materials. The material you choose should be based on what the primary use of your gloves will be. Check out the Types of Work Gloves section for a deeper dive into materials.

Cuffs

Many gloves have cuffs that help keep dirt, grime, sawdust, or other particles out of your glove. This feature is a must for me. I spend a lot of time outside working around moss, dirt, and rocks, and a cuff helps keep my glove from becoming full of mud.

Coating

Coating on your outdoor work gloves is mainly a consideration with gardening and lightweight work gloves. These coatings are often nitrile or polyurethane and excellent for landscaping, gardening, or painting projects where you may need the extra grip or are likely to encounter mud or slippery substances.

Padding

Padded gloves are great for work that entails working with repetitive motion machinery or just repetitive motions like a jackhammer, hammer, digging, or chainsaw. The shock absorption that comes with additional padding protects your hand and helps with exhaustion and tiring out. Additionally, consistent and repetitive motions could lead to hand or wrist injuries from overuse or carpal tunnel.

Size

Properly fitting gloves will make working and moving your hands much more effortless. Small gloves will limit your movement, and gloves that are too big won't allow you to grab tools and materials easily or work precisely. I have small hands, and the importance of finding a glove that will enable me to work with my fingers cannot be understated.

Palm Grip

Palm grips come with two primary purposes: adding additional protection from impact or adding extra grip. Based on the job at hand, you will want to decide which one you want. Suede is a common palm material for gloves as it is durable and provides extra grip. Rubberized materials provide the most grip.

Stitching

Stitching is the weakest part of a glove and the most common area to show signs of wear. Durable stitching is a must-have for longevity in your work glove. Hidden and double stitching are the strongest types of stitching.

Durability

If your work gloves aren't durable, are they really working? Durability is a must. Leather is arguably the most durable material, but that may not suit your needs. PVC and Rubber materials are the least durable but provide grip.

Warmth and breathability

If you're working outdoors in the winter, warm gloves are a must. I spend a lot of time in the woods with my gloves in the wet winter, and I need warmth. However, if you work in warm environments or indoors, breathability may be an asset to you. Before purchasing a pair of gloves, consider the settings you will likely be using them in.

Protection

Your work glove's primary duty is to protect. That protection can come from an abrasion-resistant option, all-leather construction, or extra padding on the hand from shock. When considering protection, first consider what you need protection from.

Comfort

If your gloves are not comfortable, you will not only be unhappy while wearing them, but you could end up with blisters or sores. If you need to be in work gloves for your profession or long periods, uncomfortable gloves could be extremely problematic.

Sizing your glove appropriately can make a massive difference in the comfort of your glove. For more sizing information, read above.

Types of work gloves

Leather

Leather gloves are ideal for heavy-duty jobs, including metalworking, cutting lumber, and any work involving incredibly hot or cold materials. Additionally, leather gloves provide protection from potentially harmful chemicals.

When looking through the available selection of work gloves, you will find all-leather and leather palm gloves. Leather palm gloves feature heavy-duty fabric on the back of the hand and the fingers, allowing you to move more easily and often offering more breathability than all-leather gloves.

Depending on the task at hand, you may consider which type of leather glove is more appropriate.

Synthetic materials

Synthetic materials in work gloves include polyester, nylon, PVC, and rubber. Generally, these materials are best for specific purposes.

Before opting for a particular synthetic material glove, be sure that the material can hold up to your particular needs.

Rubber/PVC

All rubber and PVC gloves are best for working with slippery substances and harsh chemicals.

Many gloves do use a form of rubber in the palm because of the additional grip it provides. Both PVC and rubber tend to fall apart as they age.

Work gloves FAQ

Q: What do work gloves do?

A: Work gloves protect your hands from cuts, abrasions, splinters, and chemicals you might encounter while working.

Those who practice woodworking or metalworking, work in construction or outdoor professions, handle chemicals, or work with saws and other tools may opt to wear work gloves. Work gloves are also great for home improvement projects and gardening.

Anytime you wish to protect your hands, work gloves are a great choice.

Q: When should you not wear work gloves?

A: You should not wear gloves when working with machinery that has rotating and spinning parts. Gloves can get caught and draw hands and fingers into dangerous situations.

If you are working with machinery where your gloves could contact moving parts, you should exercise an abundance of caution.

Q: How long should work gloves last?

A: How long your work gloves last depends on how often you are using them. If you are wearing your gloves every day for a full day of work, three weeks isn't an abnormal amount of time to burn through a pair of gloves. However, a few months or longer is a great time frame for thorough wear with more infrequent use.

Q: What material gloves are the warmest?

A: What are the best work gloves for cold weather? Generally, all-leather gloves make for the warmest work gloves. These gloves lack breathability and some dexterity, but all-leather gloves will keep your hands toasty if you are working in chilly conditions.

If leather gloves are not an option for you, a winter-specific pair or suede are the next best options.

Q: What is the toughest leather for gloves?

A: Split Leather is the toughest leather and makes for the most durable work gloves. Split leather is also the most moisture-resistant and most durable option.

Furthermore, split leather provides the benefits of leather but provides some dexterity lacking in other leather constructions.

Sources:

1. Hand Protection: When are Work Gloves a Bad Idea? - EHS Daily Advisor
2. How Long Should Your Work Gloves Last? - Superior Glove
3. How Long Will Your Gloves Last? - Industry Safety & Hygiene News

Plano is well-respected in the angler world for building quality and innovative gear at reasonable prices. The Plano 7771-01 Guide Series Tackle System is no different. They’ve taken the classic tackle box design and given it a thoughtful upgrade. While the carry method and general tackle box benefits like visibility and compactness are all there, this product offers vast storage space and a modular storage system that can custom fit your gear and needs.

The test

I tested this product on a fishing trip with my father to Braunig Lake. We had lots of gear to test and compare. We hauled all our gear between the Plano Tackle System and the SpiderWire Wolf Tackle Bag. We fished with live bait but still brought plenty of tackle and hooks to build our own rigs. When preparing the box the night before, our pre-filled clear tackle boxes didn’t fit into the slots, so we had to move some things over into the four included boxes. Additionally, the product comes with dividers for the upper storage section. I found the dividers hard to separate and work with due to the tabs on the ends, which caused some frustration in the setup. They needed to be carefully trimmed with scissors and then placed in particular locations to be functional.

While I’m more of a tackle bag person, my dad fell head over heels for the Plano Guide Series Tackle System. It seems it was the tackle box of his dreams. You can see through the translucent lid to view what’s in the upper storage compartment (a must for him), and there’s some wonderfully spacious storage in the right-side storage compartment. That section is deep, allowing for tool storage and larger items. My dad likes to be able to see all his gear because if it’s not right in front of his face, it doesn’t really exist, and that’s why he will never veer away from the classic tackle box.

The fold-down door on the front of the box makes for easy access to the four slide-out clear tackle boxes. Don’t pull out too many boxes at once, though, or you’ll tip over the whole thing! The plastic construction is water-resistant, and there are no metal pieces to rust when exposed to water. The over-molded plastic handle was easy to hold and ergonomic.

The buy

I ended up letting my dad hold onto this tackle box since he was so enamored with it and he was delighted. He has since used it several more times with no issues whatsoever. If you’d like your own Plano 7771-01 Guide Series Tackle System, the MSRP is $109.99, but many outdoor and online retailers offer a discount.

See Plano 7771 Guide Series Tackle Box on Amazon

See Plano 7771 Guide Series Tackle Box on Walmart

See Plano 7771 Guide Series Tackle Box on Bass Pro

A successful hunt requires the right weapon, experience, and lots of patience. But what you wear on your feet plays a huge role on your hunting trip. Hunting often calls for you to slog through miles of sloppy, hazardous terrain in all types of weather. If your footwear isn’t up to the challenge you’ll be calling it quits and heading back to the car while that 12-point buck disappears over the ridge.

In this guide to the best hunting boots, we’re going to take a close look at the best footwear for your next hunt, from breathable deer hunting boots to insulated rubber hunting boots. After days spent on research and months on testing, we've gathered the top-rated hunting boots on the market.

Best boot for upland hunting: Danner Recurve Dry Waterproof Hunting Boots

• Vibram Megagrip sole
• Waterproof boots
• Keep feet warm from 15°F-50°F
• Model: 47613
• Weight: 3.62lbs

Pros

• Long-lasting
• Waterproof
• Comfortable boots

Cons

• Some reviewers say hard to keep tied
• Runs narrow

For the last two years, the Danner Recurve has been our tester's go-to hunting boot. For that reason, it tops our list. He has worn it for more than 50 days in the field, from archery elk hunting in warm weather in high mountains to pheasant hunting in South Dakota. He often covers up to 20 miles a day, and these boots have proven durable and comfortable.

What has he learned? The Danner Recurve is a wonderfully versatile boot. It’s perfect for big miles and works well in temperatures from about 15°F to 50°F. It provides good support for heavy loads and keeps feet dry with the Danner Dry waterproof-breathable barrier. The Vibram Megagrip outsole offers good traction, even on snowy, icy slopes. At 45 ounces per pair, this boot is light enough for long hikes but protective enough for rough, off-trail hiking. As it is only 7-in tall, we recommend gaiters with this boot if using it in tall, thick brush or deep snow.

Buyers can expect a long life out of this boot. Our tester puts down more miles than the average hunter, but still got two full seasons out of these boots, thanks to the full-grain uppers and smart design. He expects a minimum of three seasons, which makes them an excellent investment at retail price. This boot is our recommendation for the best hunting boot for upland hunting and everyday use.

See Danner Recurve Dry Waterproof Hunting Boots on Amazon

See Danner Recurve Dry Waterproof Hunting Boots on Black Ovis

Best rubber snake boots: Lacrosse Men's 4X Alpha Snake Hunting Boots

• Neoprene/rubber hunting boots
• Snakebite-proof
• Adjustable buckle
• Model: 4x Alpha Snake Boot-M
• Weight: 4lbs

Pros

• Neoprene/ rubber mix is more durable and flexible than pure rubber
• Burly outsole with integrated shank
• Avoid snake bites

Cons

• Hard to get on and off due to height
• Wear high socks to avoid rubbing

If you’re hiking in snake terrain, you need boots that protect you from snake bites. The Lacrosse snake boot is the best hunting boot for hiking in tall grasses and areas where you may come across a slithering reptile. These feature a sturdy, shock-resistant, and waterproof neoprene and rubber upper for comfort. Sixteen inches gives you plenty of hight for wading or muddy hiking in rough terrain.

Neoprene and rubber boots are more flexible and durable than pure rubber boots, and they won’t crack over time or in cold weather. Plus, extra layers in the toe guard and instep provide extra durability in high-stress areas. The adjustable opening accommodates various sizes of calves and can be tightened for a better fit. The outsoles are durable and resilient to various weather conditions and terrains, with an integrated shank that adds stability.

See Lacrosse Men’s 4x Alpha Snake Hunting Boots on Amazon

See Lacrosse Men’s 4x Alpha Snake Hunting Boots on Cabela’s

Best lace-up snake boots: Irish Setter Men's 2875 Vaprtrek Waterproof Hunting Boot

• Snake bite protection
• 60% textile, 40% leather
• Lace-up boots
• Model: 2875 Vaprtrek-M
• Weight: 2lbs

Pros

• Scent ban technology protects from bacteria and odor
• 16in high, great for tall grasses
• RPM Outsole

Cons

• Lace-up takes a while to put on and take off
• Not fully waterproof

Irish Setter boots are great boots for hunting, and these snake boots are no exception. Made out of 60% textile and 40% leather, these tall boots protect from snake bites and challenging terrain, while breathing well. The RPM outsole keeps you on your feet in any terrain, and ArmaTec toe and heel cap deliver extra abrasion-resistant protection. The UltraDry membrane provides waterproofing.

One of the biggest complaints that hunters have about leather boots is that they smell. This pair of hunting boots has scent-free technology that kills bacteria and odors and keeps your boots smelling fresh. This well-loved boot is the best hunting boot for tall grasses and meadows.

See Irish Setter Men’s 2875 Vaprtrek Waterproof Hunting Boot on Amazon

See Irish Setter Men’s 2875 Vaprtrek Waterproof Hunting Boot on Amazon

Best tall rubber boots: LaCrosse Grange Hunting Boots

• Waterproof and durable rubber that doesn’t tear or crack easily
• Keeps feet dry even in wet, marshy areas
• Tall but lightweight
• Model: 18
• Weight: 4lbs

Pros

• Outsole lugs shed debris and provide traction
• Rubber is tear-resistant and ribbed for enhanced durability
• Form-fitting to ensure the boots stay in place

Cons

• Sizing can be an issue for some customers as they tend to run bit small
• Non-insulated hunting boots, so not ideal for very cold conditions

If you spend any time in the woods you know how quickly two inches of standing water can turn into a foot of water. When that happens you don’t want to be wearing ankle-high hiking boots that will let in the deluge and end your hunt before it even begins. The LaCrosse Men’s Grange 18-in Hunting Boots will provide you with the waterproof coverage to go where you need to go. This is the best hunting boot for wet terrain and wading through marshy areas and standing water.

See Lacrosse Grange Hunting Boots on Amazon

See Lacrosse Grange Hunting Boots on Moosejaw

Best for warmer weather: Kenetrek Mountain Extreme Hunting Boots

• Waterproof breathable membrane
• 10in tall
• Full-grain leather
• Model: KE-420-NI
• Weight: 5lbs

Pros

• Great traction with deep lugs
• Waterproof and breathable
• Leather Upper with corrosion-resistant hardwear

Cons

• Expensive
• This is a stiff boot so it will take time to break-in

The Kenetrek Mountain Extreme hunting boot looks great and does the job for warmer weather hunts. These are some of the best men’s hunting boots on the market, but the cost reflects that.

The Windtex waterproof breathable membrane provides waterproofing beneath the full-grain leather upper. K Talon outsoles have aggressive lugs, and the seven-centimetre nylon midsole provides lots of stability, shock absorption, and stiffness through the sole. The hardware on the boot is corrosion-resistant to stand up to years of use and abuse. They are not insulated, which makes them great for warmer weather or hunts where you’re moving a lot and staying warm.

See Kenetrek Mountain Extreme Hunting Boots on Amazon

Best hunting/hiking crossover boot: Lowa Men’s Tibet GTX Hunting Boots

• Gore-tex
• Nubuck leather
• Climate control lining
• Model: Tibet GTX-M
• Weight: 2lbs

Pros

• Hiking/hunting crossover boot
• Seamless nubuck leather upper combined with Gore-Tex membrane
• Vibram outsole
• Lots of ankle support

Cons

• Needs time to break-in
• Snug fit

Lowa is a well-known, high-quality brand that makes great footwear from hunting to mountaineering boots. The Tibet GTX Trekking Boot is a boot that understands that hunting is more than just getting out of the car and shooting, it’s the pursuit, hazardous terrain, and long days of scurrying through the underbrush in all types of weather.

Like all aggressive boots, these will start out stiff and soften with wear. They also give you plenty of support and Gore-Tex waterproof breathable protection from the elements. The Vibram sole provides excellent traction. The climate control lining keeps your feet comfortable even when you start to get sweaty on the move. Plus, these boots double as hiking boots.

See Lowa Men’s Tibet GTX Hunting Boots on Amazon

See Lowa Men’s Tibet GTX Hunting Boots on REI

See Lowa Men’s Tibet GTX Hunting Boots on Moosejaw

Best elk hunting boots: Irish Setter 880 Elk Tracker Hunting Boots

• 200g Thinsulate insulation
• Gore-Tex waterproof membrane
• 9.5in high
• Model: 880
• Weight: 2lbs

Pros

• Lined with 200g Thinsulate insulation for warmth
• Scentban technology keeps you odor-free
• Memory foam insole

Cons

• These are stiff boots, so they need time to break-in

Irish Setter has been making hunting boots forever. And their boots are high quality, durable, and comfortable — perfect for long hunts. Designed specifically as elk hunting boots, these boots are ready to hike for miles.

The Scentban lining allows you to remain scent-free and conceal your presence. The abrasion-resistant upper full-grain leather upper couples with Gore-Tex to make great hunting boots. The 200g of Thinsulate insulation keeps you warm, and a steel shank provides mid-foot support and shock absorption.

See Irish Setter 880 Elk Tracker Hunting Boots on Amazon

See Irish Setter 880 Elk Tracker Hunting Boots on Zappos

See Irish Setter 880 Elk Tracker Hunting Boots on Bass Pro

Best tall rubber boots runner-up: LaCrosse Men’s Alphaburly Pro

• Neoprene and rubber
• Moisture-wicking/quick-dry lining
• 18 inches high
• Model: Alphaburly Pro 18 Realtree Xtr-M
• Weight: 7lbs

Pros

• Rubber and neoprene provide scent-free waterproofing
• Extra tall design
• The lining adds moisture-wicking comfort

Cons

• Not insulated, so not suitable for very cold weather

The LaCrosse Alphaburly Pro 18-in Hunting Boots are tall and mighty, using neoprene and rubber to create a cozy waterproof lightweight boot. The rubber sole and scratch rubber toe and heel provide extra durability. The camo design fits perfectly with the rest of your gear and the moisture-wicking lining helps you stay comfortable when you get sweaty.

The LaCrosse Alphaburly Pro Hunting Boots are for those who need their hunting shoes to provide them with scent-free comfort and all the capability. With the Alphaburly, you won’t be caught off guard if you encounter an area of standing water or if the shallows turn out to be deeper than you imagined.

See Lacrosse Men’s Alphaburly Pro on Amazon

See Lacrosse Men’s Alphaburly Pro on Bass Pro

See Lacrosse Men’s Alphaburly Pro on Cabela’s

Best treestand hunting boots: Danner Pronghorn Realtree

• 1200g Thinsulate insulation
• Gore-Tex lining
• Full-grain leather upper
• Model: Pronghorn Realtree Xtra 1200G-M
• Weight: 4lbs

Pros

• Comfortable Ortholite insoles
• Waterproof breathable Gore-Tex membrane
• 8in high, plenty of ankle support

Cons

• Not high enough for wading

The Danner Pronghorn Men’s hunting boots are made out of a mix of leather, Gore-Tex waterproof breathable lining, and Thinsulate ultra insulation. Danner’s Pronghorn outsole provides plenty of traction and support on tough terrain.

These insulated hunting boots feature 1200g of insulation which will keep your feet warm and protected while you wait in a tree stand. The Ortholite footbed supports your foot. Eight inches high, these are not the boot for wading through a pond, but will protect you well in most terrain.

See Danner Pronghorn Realtree on Amazon

Best for cold weather: Kamik Men's Hunter Boot

• -40°C temperature rating
• Waterproof design
• Removable thermal guard liner
• Adjustable snow collar
• Model: HUNTER-M
• Weight: 0.75lbs

Pros

• Snow collar
• Rubber boots
• Removable liner
• Affordable

Cons

• Not as much traction as some boots

The Kamik Hunter Boot provides a bit of everything, whether you’re an avid hunter, farmer, or just someone who loves to stroll through the wilderness. One of the best rubber hunting boots, these waterproof boots will keep your feet dry while you hike across marshes or streams. With a temperature rating of -40°C, these boots are perfect for cold weather hunting. Plus the removable thermal guard liner makes these boots work for every season, without the risk of overheating.

An adjustable snow collar is available when things get really wet and snowy. With several colors and a wide range of sizes available, plus a consistent fit, these are a great buy.

See Kamik Men’s Hunter Boot on Amazon

See Kamik Men’s Hunter Boot on Zappos

See Kamik Men’s Hunter Boot on Dick’s Sporting Goods

Why trust us

We spend our time out in the woods, hiking up mountains, and across streams, hunting elk, pheasants, and everything in between. We hike many miles a day and need the right hunting boot to get us where we need to go.

Who this is for

Anyone who hunts, or just spends time outside and wants a high-quality, durable leather or rubber boot to take you on your next adventure. This guide will give you some great options, and teach you what to look for in a hunting boot.

How we picked

We picked our favorite hunting boots for men from experience and by researching all-around hunting boots available on the market. We chose boots that were good for different types of hunts, from rubber boots that help control your scent on a deer hunt, to snake boots that protect your feet from snake bites, to tactical boots.

How we tested

We tested boots over hundreds of miles of trail, from archery elk hunting in warm weather in high mountains to pheasant hunting in South Dakota. We took boots through rivers and muddy trails.

Features to look for in hunting boots

When shopping for new hunting boots there are many things to keep in mind to find the right boots for your needs. Here are some of the most common considerations that go into choosing the perfect hunting boots.

Fit

This kind of goes without saying for any type of footwear but even more so with hunting boots. If you’re pursuing a big bull through the woods in the winter and your elk hunting boots are pinching your toes, there’s no opportunity to stop and take your boots off. You’re stuck with them. So make sure your hunting boots fit you well before heading out. You want them to fit larger than your dress shoes, so your toes have room to move, and in case your feet swell while on the move. But also ensure they are not too big so you can't move properly. Also, if they’re brand new you should wear them around the house for a while to break them in before taking them out the first time.

Waterproofing

If you are planning to spend time outside in any weather, you need waterproof boots. With high-quality waterproofing, you can confidently make your way across rivers and streams. Boots that contain a Gore-Tex waterproof breathable lining will cost a bit more than other hunting boots but the waterproofing will last longer than a waterproof coating like those on waterproof suede leather boots.

Insulation

Frozen feet are no fun when you’re miles from the campsite or car. Frostbite is a real threat when you’re in the wild in the middle of winter. In such conditions, it’s crucial to wear insulated hiking boots. When the weather is warm, insulation is not such a big deal and may even be a hindrance that causes you to overheat. Some of the warmest boots you can find include 2000+ grams of Thinsulate insulation or similar.

Soles

Ultimately, it’s the soles of your boots that bear the brunt of your weight. They need to withstand the pounding and provide you with firm footing regardless of the type of terrain you encounter. If your backpack is loaded down with gear, the sole will need to be supportive and somewhat stiff. If you are a light traveler you can typically get away with a thinner sole although even then it will need to provide adequate arch support as well as stability. Choosing boots with deeper lugs will help on loose ground, and stickier rubber will help with rocky terrain.

Height

The height of your hunting boots depends on what you plan to do with them. Choose higher hunting boots if you think you’ll be encountering water, mud, or snow. Shorter boots work fine in a warmer, drier environment. But you should still make sure whatever hunting boots you buy have adequate ankle support.

Hunting boots FAQ

Q: How tall should your hunting boots be?

A: This will depend in large part on what you plan to use them for. If you plan to spend time wading into the marshes after ducks and geese, you’re probably going to want pretty tall rubber boots like muck boots just to be safe, even if you plan to wear waders. On the other hand, if you’ll be waiting in a blind for deer, you’ll have no need for such a high boot. Many hunters suggest that an eight to ten-inch boot is plenty high for the majority of hunting activities and you should only go higher if specific conditions demand it.

Q: What is a good weight for hunting boots?

A: First of all there is no “ideal” weight for hunting boots. A good weight for one person might be too much for someone else depending on their size, age, and physical condition. That said, as a general rule, you want the lightest boot possible so that your legs don’t feel like lead weights at the end of the day. Material advancements in recent years have led to lighter, more breathable, and more water-resistant boots, with some pairs now tipping the scales at just over a scant two pounds. But, if you can keep the weight under four or five pounds for a pair of boots, you’ll be doing okay.

Q: What is the best design for a hunting boot?

A: It depends on the function the hunting boots are intended to fulfill. If wading through the shallows or navigating muddy forest in pursuit of your quarry is on the cards then you’ll want a 100% waterproof boot that comes up pretty high. On the other hand, chasing elk into the mountains during the fall and winter will call for hunting boots that are both waterproof and well insulated against the cold and wind. If you’re hunting moose or waterfowl, you’re going to need waders or hip boots.

Q: What's the difference between hunting boots and hiking boots?

A: Hunting boots are typically heavier than hiking boots, and can also look different. Some hunting boots are rubber boots or muck boots more similar to rain boots or snow boots. Hiking boots are designed for lots of miles, and less for dealing with a variety of conditions. Hunting gear needs to stand up to rain, snow, mud, and water. They also need to keep your feet warm. Boots for hunting often include Thinsulate ultra insulation and come up higher on your legs than most hiking boots.

Q: What are the best hunting boots for cold weather?

A: The best cold weather hunting boots feature Thinsulate insulation and high-quality waterproofing. Depending on how cold you run, and what temperatures you plan to hunt in, your boots could have anywhere from 400 to 2000+ grams of insulation.

Q: Should you buy hunting boots a size bigger?

A: You want your boots to fit comfortably, without any rubbing. Typically, boots will fit larger than other types of shoes like dress shoes because you want plenty of room in the toes in case your feet swell and to keep from getting blisters. Make sure to try on your possible hunting boot with the socks you plan to wear hunting. You may need to go a size bigger than your typical size, but it really depends on the model and fit of the specific boot.

Q: How much insulation do I need for hunting boots?

A: Insulated hunting boots are necessary for colder temperatures, especially when you're keeping still for long periods of time. How much insulation you want depends on what time of year you plan on wearing them. If you want something to wear into the winter or in below-freezing temperatures, you will want boots with at least 1000g of insulation. If you tend to have cold feet, the warmest hunting boots with 2000g+ of insulation might be better. If you tend to overheat, go with less insulated hunting boots.

Q: How long do hunting boots last?

A: This depends on how much you use them, where you use them, and various other factors. Most boots should last you at least two years under heavy use, and up to 10-20 years with lighter use and lots of care. You will know if you need a new pair when the soles start wearing out, they aren't waterproof anymore, or your feet start hurting.

Conclusion

Your choice of hunting boots will play a large role in determining if your hunting trip is a success and whether it’s any fun. Slogging through the woods all weekend with wet socks, frozen feet, and a sprained ankle isn’t going to be any fun regardless of how successful the hunt is. Follow the above tips when selecting your new boots and your trips should turn out fine.

Sources:

1. What To Wear When Deer Stalking - BASC
2. Beat The Freeze - NWTF

Fishing pliers are a must-have piece of gear. Pliers aren’t only for removing hooks but can cut lines, help with split rings, and much more. One of my favorite pairs of fishing pliers is the Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers because of their well-balanced weight, versatility, and features.

When I first pulled these out of the box, I loved the color first and foremost. I attached the sheath to the pliers via the included braided metal coiled lanyard and stored them on the side of my tackle box. The next day, I headed to Braunig Lake to fish with my dad. We used these pliers to remove hooks from fish so we could finish preparing them for dinner, build rigs, and cut lines when loading our reels.

Features on features

My favorite element of this tool is the excellent weight distribution. Neither end is too heavy and allows for excellent dexterity along the 7.8in tool. The contoured finger inlays allow for additional grip, especially when working with large fish or tough jobs. The handle end is all aluminum and the business end is stainless steel, creating a balance of weight and durability where it’s needed. Weighing in at a mere .3lbs, they are nimble and lightweight. The aluminum is also rust-resistant, making these acceptable for both fresh and saltwater use.

On the nose of these pliers is a split ring tool, increasing the versatility. Also, on the business end of the Booms there is a crimp sleeve and a crimp split lead, and lastly, line cutters. The line cutters are capable of cutting braided lines, monofilament lines, and fluorocarbon lines.

The buy

If you’re ready to add the Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers to your angling arsenal, you can order them through Amazon.com or direct through Booms Fishing at an MSRP of $19.99.

See Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

See Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Walmart

When it comes to workwear, few brands are known as well as Carhartt. The Carhartt name is synonymous with quality goods. The Carhartt Men's System 5 Safety Cuff Work Glove is no exception. This Carhartt glove is a heavy-duty work glove with synthetic leather construction and suede reinforcements for demanding jobs and excellent protection. A hard day's work can be made exponentially easier with quality protective gear.

Stay warm, stay tough

Because of the all-leather construction, these gloves were incredibly warm, which was excellent for cold days and chilly warehouses. When working outdoors, I found them well suited for chilly, rainy Pacific Northwest days while moving logs and other debris. I used this model to move firewood, saw branches for trail work, and improve pasture fencing. These gloves performed well, were undamaged, and kept my hands warm during the long day.

I've used lots of gloves and occasionally still got splinters when working with wood. But the Carhartt System 5 Safety Cuff Work Glove protected me from splinters, and the suede palm patch provided some additional grip, but not quite as much as I would have liked.

The fit

I found the fit to be somewhat loose with a size small, but I have small hands. The elastic cuff still left plenty of space for dust and dirt to enter the glove, and it sat a bit above the wrist. Because the glove and cuff were not tight-fitting small debris, sawdust, and dirt were able to get inside the glove.

You don't usually expect dexterity with an all-leather glove, especially in a glove that doesn't quite fit. To my surprise, the Carhartt System 5 Safety Cuff Work Glove's dexterity was decent despite the large fit and the fact that it's leather. I had some gaps in the fingertips, which would be problematic for some jobs, but I opted to use these for loading, trail work, and fixing pasture fencing, and they performed well. I had approximately a half-inch of space in each of the fingertips and additional space in the thumb. But this is a common trend in gloves for me, it is rare I find a glove that fits snugly.

Carhartt System 5 Safety Cuff Work Glove buy

All in all, Carhartt crafted a quality glove that provides warmth, wrist protection, and durability. Be sure to measure your hands accurately before purchase, so you get a proper fit. If the Carhartt System 5 Work Glove is your next work glove, you can pick up a pair on Amazon for $22, a reasonable price for durability, and a name brand.

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Amazon

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Carhartt

See the Carhartt Men's System 5 Work Glove on Dungarees

Everyone knows the classic tackle box, and if you've ever fished, you have probably used one. While these products are effective and allow you to see everything you need at once, they can be difficult to carry and generally quite cumbersome. The SpiderWire Wolf Tackle Bag doesn't offer the same visibility as a tackle box, but for those who can remember where they put things, it offers an excellent alternative to the tackle box that is easy to use, carry, and travel with.

Gone fishin'

How better to test fishing gear than to go fishing? While visiting Texas, my dad and I hit the bait shop for live bait and rolled on over to Braunig Lake in Central Texas, our tackle all stored in the SpiderWire Wolf Tackle Bag. When packing the bag the night before, we noticed a few things. The large zipper pocket doesn't quite open all the way, which could make accessing your gear difficult if it was full. Thankfully, this wasn't a problem for us. We were able to fit four small tackle boxes in the interior. I like the tackle bag style as it's much easier to carry, but you have to remember where all your gear is. My dad prefers the tackle box style since he can't remember where he puts anything.

A solid build

Aside from the main interior pocket, there are two zippered storage pockets on the front, an additional one on the side, and storage in the bag's main flap. Lastly, there's a mesh pocket on the back of the bag, perfect for flat and smaller items like keys, or a wallet. My favorite storage compartment was the open-top pocket on the right side which made the perfect place for essentials that need to be accessed easily, like pliers and rags. The array of storage options made organization easy.

While I didn't try to beat this bag down, the 1680 denier polyester and PVC exterior seems tough as nails and showed no wear except for a bit of dirt. The padded shoulder strap made it easy to carry, which I enjoyed much more than a single handle on a tackle box. To help the bag hold its shape, the bottom is molded so that the product doesn't collapse on itself and stays sturdy and upright, which was helpful on the uneven truck bed and ground.

A couple of bonus features that I didn't use included fishing line dispensers and tool holders on the front pockets. The fishing line dispenser is found on the side of the bag, near the top. Once you've threaded your spool, you're ready to go. Additionally, some holsters adorn the front two zippered pockets for additional fishing pliers or multi-tools.

The buy

The SpiderWire Wolf Tackle Bag is available on Amazon or at several online and in-person fishing and outdoor stores. The MSRP for this product is $49.99, and it boasts a 38.8L carry capacity. I loved using this product and enjoyed it as an alternative to the traditional tackle box. All in all, I would give it four out of five stars.

See Spiderwire Wolf Tackle Box on Amazon

One of the most critical pieces of fishing gear is a pair of fishing pliers. This simple but versatile tool is great for removing hooks from a fish's mouth, cutting fishing lines, helping you build fishing lures, or manipulating treble hooks. Fishing pliers are a tool you can't go fishing without and that you should always keep accessible in your tackle box or bag.

The best pliers for fishing will be crafted with either stainless steel or aluminum and will be versatile and durable. We've tested products, gone fishing with them, read fishing plier reviews, and compiled a guide to the best fishing pliers for your next fishing trip.

Best weight distribution: Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers 

• Includes braided metal lanyard and hook attachment
• Durable aluminum construction
• Contoured handle for maximum dexterity

Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers come with a braided metal coiled lanyard, that you'll want to attach to the sheath once the box arrives. The star of the show here is the perfect weight distribution between the 7.8” plier end, and the ergonomic handle; these two combined make this set of aluminum pliers all that more comfortable to use, especially when handling large fish! We were lucky enough to catch a large red drum while out fishing with this tool. The handles are designed with contoured finger inlays which helped me retain full control of the pliers during use.

The line cutters on this set can cut braided line, monofilament line, and fluorocarbon line. They feature line cutters, crimp sleeves, a crimp split lead, and a split ring in the nose. Aluminum is rust-resistant and this tool can be used for both fresh and saltwater fishing. Given their size, these are best for small to medium fish. Read the in-depth review here.

See Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

See Booms Fishing X1 Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Walmart

Best choice: Piscifun Aluminum Fishing Pliers 

• Super-fine four-use plier end
• Sharp line-cutters are fully replaceable
• Primary tungsten carbide construction

Crafted out of highly durable tungsten carbide, the Piscifun pliers promise years of use with a high level of rust resistance. The business end of this device has a four-in-one use, including fine grooves to tackle different hook sizes, crimp sleeves, and crimp leads. Last but not least, the line-cutters are durable and replaceable. Instead of purchasing a whole new set of pliers or line cutters, I can swap out the line cutters as they dull.

This tool was usable straight out of the box, and easy to use when removing hooks from a large tilapia a friend caught. On cold days, a rubber grip on the handle would be nice so that your hands aren't on cold metal.

See Piscifun Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Most lightweight: Wolfyok Aluminum Fishing Pliers

• Includes braided lanyard and latch hook
• Ergonomic handle design helps you retain control
• Aluminum construction, stainless steel jaws

A combination of lightweight aluminum body and stainless steel jaws with Teflon coating makes this reliable pair of pliers fairly rust-resistant and unlikely to bend under pressure. If you're looking for a fast, light, and affordable set of fresh or saltwater fishing pliers then the Wolfyok Aluminum Fishing Pliers might be a great choice. These split ring fishing pliers feature a finger inlay for all four fingers, as well as a raised curve at the end, which helps with a bit of extra pushing power when a hook gets awkwardly stuck.

As many pliers do, Wolfyok includes a metal braided lanyard and hook. They also did something unconventional here and put the line-cutters on the right-hand side of the pliers. This is an innovative placement that appears to work fine once you get used to it. Given the weight and 6.7in length, it's best for small to medium fish.

See Wolfyok Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Best medium-duty: Sanlike Aluminum Fishing Pliers

• Includes a braided metal lanyard and sheath
• Bulky handle helps with maximum grip
• Wide grooves help with multiple hook types and cutting the line

Many fishing pliers are made out of similar materials and similar designs because the brands know what works. The Sanlike Aluminum Fishing Pliers took this tried and tested design, then beefed up the handles, and added tungsten carbide line cutters and a camo pattern. The bulked-up handle allows larger hands more space and additional control when removing stubborn hooks.

The plier end is fairly small but includes a line-cutter at the base, as well as wide grooves and crimp sleeves along the plier body.

See Sanlike Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Best design: Gerber Magniplier Locking Fishing Pliers

• Off-axis nose and spaced handles improve performance
• Includes braided metal lanyard and sheath with velcro closure
• Carbide cutters take ages to dull, can be sharpened

Gerber is one of our favorite brands, as they have excellent hunting gear and the Gerber Magniplier Locking Fishing Pliers are no exception. The usual fishing plier design was thrown out the window for this sleek, innovative, mostly black tool to be born. These fishing pliers are high-end and equipped with a carbide line-cutter that you'll have to work hard to dull. Even at that point, it can be sharpened to avoid paying for replacements.

The entire design is ergonomic, from the handles to the finger inlay. Your nose end is off-axis to provide better grip on hook curves, while the handles are spaced enough to give you better dexterity and withstand added tension. Lastly, you'll find a coiled lanyard and nylon sheath to protect the needle-nose tips and spring-loaded handles.

See Gerber Magniplier Locking Fishing Pliers on Amazon

See Gerber Magniplier Locking Fishing Pliers on Gerber

Best for saltwater fishing: BITE Fishing Pliers

• Full aluminum construction
• Off-center line-cutters with a wide range of use
• Ergonomic soft grip on both handles

BITE Footwear did something out of the box and made a remarkable pair of fishing pliers. The BITE Fishing Pliers are all corrosion-resistant aluminum and offer a large center hinge with a short handle gap. What that means is you have to apply very little pressure to put them into action, allowing for fast and easy hook removal, even on big fish.

The tungsten carbide cutters are off-center, sticking out from the side of the pliers, and boast a wide end on either side. That allows you to sharpen them in the future without turning them into nubs. Lastly, the ergonomic grip and soft-touch handles make this easy to use and keep your hands from touching chilly metal on cold days.

See BITE Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Best heavy-duty: Lews Aluminum Fishing Pliers

• Aircraft quality aluminum handles
• 303-grade stainless steel spring bearing
• Includes sheath and a wire braided metal lanyard

Not into flashy fishing pliers? We don’t blame you, and neither do Lews: they put together a rugged, no-fuss pair of pliers, and included a braided metal lanyard and sheath to go along with it. The real show-stoppers are the aircraft-grade aluminum handles and primary construction, stainless steel-lined plier nose with serrated jaws, and 303-grade steel spring bearings. In short, these pliers are built to outlast just about every other pair you can find.

While they may not feature some of the bells and whistles, sometimes basic pliers are a win and this option is excellent for heavy-duty use.

See Lews Aluminum Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Best titanium: Van Staal Titanium Fishing Pliers

• Full titanium construction
• Includes a leather sheath (open top)
• Steel side line-cutters

Are you ready to treat yourself? Van Staal offer a high-end line of fantastic tools and home products, and their fishing pliers are no exception. Crafted out of nothing but titanium, these pliers withstand rust, the test of time, and every drop and bump along the way.

These needle nose pliers are fantastic fishing pliers that truly shine because of their durability. Their hefty 15.2 ounces aid in durability and allow them to be used for difficult-to-remove hooks and big fish. The handles have inlays for your fingers to help with control and prevent slippage, while the steel wire cutters sit on the side. They can be replaced or sharpened. Lastly, Van Staal also include an open-top leather sheather.

See Van Staal Titanium Fishing Pliers on Amazon

See Van Staal Titanium Fishing Pliers on Walmart

Best light duty: ZACX Fishing Pliers

• Made from anodized aluminum
• Improved spring-loaded handle
• Sheath and lanyard included
• Upgraded fish gripper included

The ZACX Fishing Pliers are one of the most popular fishing pliers. Made from anodized aluminum, they’re designed to be used in both saltwater and freshwater without rusting. The ergonomic and lightweight design makes them perfect for those situations when your hands are already tired. Plus, they have an improved spring-loaded handle that makes them easy to operate with one hand.

In addition to the pliers, you get a polyester sheath and lanyard to keep them attached to your pants, tackle box, or bag. You also get an upgraded fish gripper, which makes it easier to remove hooks from the fish’s mouth. When you examine the nose you'll find a split ring tip, sharp teeth, and crimp and press leads.

See ZACX Fishing Pliers on Amazon

See ZACX Fishing Pliers on Walmart

Most ergonomic: KastKing Cutthroat 7” Fishing Pliers

• Made from corrosion-resistant stainless steel
• Comfortable rubber handle
• Tungsten carbide cutters
• Polyester holster included
• Extendable lanyard

KastKing is one of our favorite fishing brands. Run by a bunch of fishing experts, their products are designed to make fishing easier and more enjoyable. The KastKing Cutthroat 7in Fishing Pliers are made from corrosion-resistant stainless steel and come with a comfortable rubber handle. They’ve also got a pair of carbide cutters that will make quick work of fishing lines.

In addition to the pliers, you get a polyester holster and an extendable lanyard to stop you from losing them. Our favorite features are the versatile nose and rubber grip on the handle. The rubber grip is welcome in the cold hours of the morning when you don't want your fingers to get any colder touching metal.

See KastKing Cutthroat 7” Fishing Pliers on Amazon

Why trust us

For this guide, I turned to the best angler I know, my father. To test products, we went fishing together and combined my knowledge of the outdoors and gear testing with his understanding of fishing. Together we made a great team and made friends at the lake who also used our gear and gave feedback for a more well-rounded fishing experience.

Who this is for

This guide is for the novice to the intermediate angler. More advanced fisherman and women will have their preferences but that doesn't mean they can't use this guide as a jumping-off point. We offer salt and freshwater options, needle-nose style pliers, and the best split ring pliers. We also offer a variety of materials to consider when buying. In this guide, you'll find titanium, aluminum, and stainless steel fishing pliers.

How we picked

To curate a selection of the best fishing pliers, I first looked for the top sellers and most well-reviewed options. From there, I consulted anglers I knew and asked their opinions. When adding products, I wanted to ensure we had some options in a variety of materials, weights, and heavy/medium and light duty. I believe in well-rounded guides that serve as many people as possible.

How we tested

Well, the best way to test fishing pliers is to go fishing! I opted to go to Braunig Lake with my father. We used live bait and hoped to catch carp, bass, or red drum. While fishing, we met several other folks and allowed them to use the gear we were testing as well to collect their feedback. The more input, the better.

Features to look for in fishing pliers

Material

We like to see high-grade aluminum and stainless steel, or titanium. However, titanium is less common and typically more expensive. Brands that use shoddy materials for the main body of their fishing pliers aren’t the types of companies that put great detail and care into the supporting components, like springs and spring bearings. Furthermore, aluminum and steel can handle the tension of your hands without warping over time. The only caveat is that you need to ensure the aluminum is aircraft grade or it runs the risk of bending and warping.

Durability

This is where material heavily indicates how long you’ll have these pliers. If your spring or spring bearings aren’t good quality, but the primary material is stainless steel, then you’ll be on the fast track to having a useless set of stainless steel pliers. Durability comes from brand dependability and quality materials from tip to grip. Titanium and stainless steel offer the most durability but aircraft-grade aluminum is close behind.

Weight

Weight can be both a benefit and a hindrance. For small hands or a fast and light fly fishing trip, you may want to opt for a lightweight set of pliers. When it comes to torque, durability, and working with larger fish, you'll want a little extra heft to your aluminum pliers or stainless steel fishing pliers.

Grip

The grip does more than just make contact with your skin more pleasant, it helps with proper tension application and prevents your hand from slipping. Depending on how much pressure you use to keep the hook in place during extraction, you’ll be relying on your grip to pick up the slack. A good grip will have individual finger inlays and either a rugged end (found on full-bodied aluminum fishing pliers) or a soft touch rubber coating. I'm personally a fan of rubber coatings to reduce fatigue and limit how cold your hands get.

Additional tools

Most notably, you’ll want to look for a line-cutter included in your fishing pliers. Not all of them feature this, but it cuts down on extra weight, bringing along an extra tool, and can save you time. You’ll be able to cut your line without finagling with your fishing vest, and for catch and release fishers, this is critical time to get the fish back in the water.

Lanyard

Where else are you going to put these? Your lanyard isn’t essential, but it is useful. You’re going to see just about every brand include a metal braided lanyard, standard hooks, and in some cases, they’ll also toss in a sheath to keep your pliers protected when not in use. When you're handling aluminum or steel, you’ll want to ensure that the locking mechanism works well before you simply hang this off a lanyard on your fishing vest.

Side and line cutters

A line or side cutter can be made with a variety of materials but our preference is tungsten carbide. Tungsten cutters will be more durable and last longer. We also recommend finding a model that you can either sharpen the blades when they dull or replace them.

Rustproofing/corrosion protection

Given that your fishing pliers will undoubtedly come into contact with water, corrosion resistance is a must. Quality fishing pliers must not rust. Stainless steel, titanium, and aluminum pliers will all offer some corrosion resistance with titanium and stainless steel offering more.

Length

The most common length we see in the best fishing pliers is six inches to eight inches. When choosing your length, you'll want to think about the size of your hand and what feels comfortable, as well as the type and size of fish you'll be catching. You may need some extra length to grab a stubborn fish hook.

Split ring tool

Split rings are often used to assemble fishing lures, replace treble hooks, and assemble tackle. Small split rings are difficult to open by hand and many fresh and saltwater fishing pliers now have split ring tips (or you can also find split ring pliers). A split ring tool on the nose allows you to open these rings easily, without fuss. If you are using pre-assembled lures and tackle, you may not need this, but in general, a split ring tip is a handy fishing tool.

Crimper

When assembling a rig or lure, crimping jaws can be handy. While it is possible to crimp with your regular needle-nose pliers for fishing, many of the best fishing pliers also feature specific crimping tools in the nose which are helpful if you regularly build your own rigs or lures.

Q: How do you remove a hook using pliers?

A: You might not be able to catch and release the fish if the hook is too deep. If it isn’t, then you’re going to want to act quickly, but calmly. Using the needle-nosed end of the pliers, grasp the hook at the point where it curves. Gently twist it in the direction of your line (away from the point of contact with the fish to avoid digging the hook in further). You might have to wiggle your hands slightly if you’re getting increased resistance from the hook.

Using fishing pliers allows you to have a hands-off approach, for the most part. Fish have a slimy mucus exterior that protects them, so for catch and release fishers, it means you only have to put one hand on them while the other maneuvers the pliers and removes the hook. It’s better for the fish, and quicker to get them back in the water.

Q: Do you need spring-loaded pliers?

A: If your spring-loaded pliers encounter an issue with the bearing, or just start to wear down after all that use, then they’re still going to be viable to use. You can still manually open them, close them on the hook and apply tension, they’ll still work just fine.

However, if you buy spring-loaded pliers, you’re expecting an easier time. The spring keeps them open, so you simply retrieve them from their sheath or your fishing vest, they pop open, and you have fast access to get rid of the hook.

Whether or not to go with spring-loaded handles or spring-loaded jaws is truly a matter of preference. There’s debate on the pros and cons, but this tool is extremely simple, and going with a manual pair over spring-loaded isn’t going to prohibit their viability, or decrease your skill with them.

Q: How to care for your pliers?

A: Most fishing pliers are made out of steel or aluminum but you will also run into titanium pliers. You aren’t going to see a lot of ABS plastic or engineered hard nylon here. You’re obviously aware of metal’s number one enemy, the water. More importantly, saltwater. Even with the highest grade stainless steel available for purchase, you can still damage your fishing pliers if you leave them out in improper conditions.

Assuming that you’ve found yourself an excellent pair of steel or high-grade aluminum fishing pliers, these are all the steps you can take to ensure they stay up to par. These tips go in no particular order.

• Everything in its place: Don’t make the mistake of leaving your pair of fishing pliers hanging in your fishing vest. Not only does it leave them susceptible to falling (if you hang your vest on a rack), but they’re also more likely to get knocked around. Get a designated space, and don’t leave them in your vest.
• Grease regularly: If you’ve snagged some fishing pliers that seem more like a Swiss Army Knife, then you’ll need to spend extra time greasing each moving part appropriately. Rust doesn’t just form on its own, it can creep into your pliers when you aren’t greasing them in the first place. Oil and water don’t mix, so not only are you keeping your fishing pliers operational, but you’re protecting them from unknown splashes and contact with the water.
• Understand what you’re cutting through: It’s very easy to make the mistake of overestimating your pliers. If you opted for a lower-grade aluminum pair and you’re trying to cut through steel wire, you’re only going to damage your pliers and end up frustrated. Keep a mental inventory of the metal grades of wire and fishing line that you’re using, so you don’t make a simple mistake and ruin your pliers forever.
• Sharpen quarterly: If you’re getting these because you’re a hardcore angler, you’re not going to let three months go by without using them. If you fish as often as we do, you’ll notice that even from proper use, the edges of the pliers are going to get dull with time and application. Sharpen them regularly and pay attention to any additional aspects (fold-out knives, for example). Keep in mind that some cutters (even on expensive fishing pliers) are supposed to be replaced, not sharpened. Consult the manufacturer before sharpening.
• Don’t use them for other tasks: These aren’t all-purpose pliers, and they shouldn’t be treated as such. Fishing pliers are made for a very specific purpose.

Sources:

1. Split Rings - Takemefishing.org
2. A Guide To Fishing For The First Time - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Every skier knows about or has experienced the dreaded screaming barfies. It's when your hands get too cold, then warm up too fast, and it feels like you want to barf and scream at the same time. It's wickedly unpleasant but also easily avoided. A quality pair of ski gloves can make your mountain day significantly more comfortable and keep your hands guarded against the elements.

My favorite skiing glove is the Black Diamon Spark Angel Finger Glove. Black Diamond makes products in nearly two dozen categories for skiers, climbers, hikers, and generally outdoorsy folks.

No screaming, no barfing

After my first case of the screaming barfies, I became hellbent on finding the perfect glove for my poor, cold hands. Quality gear makes a big difference for long mountain days. After trying the gloves of friends and piles of research, I settled on the Spark Angel Finger Glove due to the dexterity of the split-finger construction, the warmth the gloves provide, and the waterproof insert. I've been able to adjust my skis and bindings and secure ski boots without ever having to expose my poor fingers to the cold.

Versatility when you need it

One of my favorite things about this ski glove is its versatility. It was designed with enough dexterity for backcountry transitions but warm enough for chilly chair lift rides in the resort or long endurance days on cross country skis. The goat leather shell can take a beating from trees and tough terrain, while the BD Dry insert keeps those fingers toasty. I also love the added brow wipe on the back of the thumb. That feature comes in handy when your nose won't stop running from the cold or when you're sweaty from shredding at the park.

I use the gloves for all types of ski days, sledding, general snow enjoyment, and anytime I'm in cold weather. This glove has lasted two full winters of wear with me, and they show no signs of dying this upcoming season either.

The buy

These gloves are available directly from Black Diamond or any authorized retailers for the MSRP of $89.95. I recommend this option for resort and backcountry skiers alike as they are plenty durable and excellent for long days. I do recommend following their website size chart closely as I ordered the wrong size my first go around!

See Black Diamond Spark Angel Finger Ski Gloves on Black Diamond

See Black Diamond Spark Angel Finger Ski Gloves on EVO